Express News Service
SRINAGAR: Even as Sikh groups alleged that two Sikh girls were forcibly converted and wedded to elderly men of a different religion in J&K, one of the girls, 18, in her affidavit submitted in the High Court claimed that they had eloped and married with the Muslim youths and converted to Islam of their own will.
In the affidavit, the girl, born on February 19, 1995, has stated that she had on her own will with a sound mind and without any force from any quarters made a declaration qua conversion to Islam. The girl added that she being a major has married the youth of her own free will and necessary requirements have been fulfilled as required in terms of the law. She also alleged that there was a persistent life threat to her and her husband as she married him going against her family.
The court has directed the police not to take any coercive steps against the girl and her husband in pursuance of the case if any registered. The Sikh groups, however, alleged that the girls were forcibly married and converted to Islam.
“One of the girls, who is 18, has married to a 45-year-old man, who already had three children. It is unacceptable,” said All Party Sikh Coordination Committee (APSCC) chairman Jagmohan Singh. The court, however, has handed over the girl to her family. The Sikh groups are now seeking to annul her marriage.
Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (GPC) Budgam president Santpal Singh said: “The girls said they were talking of justice. How can an 18-year-old girl marry a 45-year-old man, who already has kids?” Both the APSCC president and GPC Budgam president demanded that a law should be enacted to ban all inter-faith marriages in J&K.
‘No place for forcible conversion’
Conversion to Islam has to be by one’s conviction and choice without any compulsion. Let there be an impartial probe, J&K’s grand mufti Nasir-ul-Islam said.
