The double case of forceful conversion has led to an uproar within the Sikh community which has been demanding a law on the lines of those implemented in UP
By
Jitesh Vachhatani
With two Sikh girls allegedly being kidnapped and converted into Islam, Sri Akal Takhat Sahib, the highest temporal seat of Sikhism, has taken a serious view of reports of Sikh girls falling victim to ‘love jihad’ and has written to Jammu & Kashmir’s Lieutenant-Governor Manoj Sinha seeking a law to prevent forceful religious conversions on the pretext of marriages. As per reports, two Sikh girls from Kashmir had been abducted and converted to Islam.
The double case of forceful conversion has led to an uproar within the Sikh community which has been demanding a law on the lines of those implemented in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh to prevent such cases. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) spokesperson Manjinder Singh Sirsa arrived in Srinagar on Sunday to lead protests in the UT and also met with the J&K L-G earlier in the day.
Sikhs write to LG, demand Love Jihad law in J&K
In their letter to the L-G, the Sri Akal Takhat Sahib officiating Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh has written, “Through this letter, I would like to apprise you about the repeated incidents of kidnapping of Sikh girls in Jammu and Kashmir and their forceful religion conversion and marrying them with Muslim men.”
“Recently, a Sikh girl has been kidnapped on gunpoint and forcefully converted into Muslim religion and married to an old man. In the last month, 4 Sikhs have been kidnapped and forcefully converted. There is a strong outrage among Sikh Community worldwide on such repeated incidents,” the letter added.
Meanwhile, L-G Sinha has acknowledged the outcry and assured the return of the Sikh girl who was forcibly converted to Islam, to her family. As per local reports, an 18-year-old Sikh Girl from Badgam district was lured and forcefully converted to Islam at gunpoint. The second case of another girl from Srinagar who after attending a function of her Muslim friend has been missing. As per reports, she was married off to a boy present in the same function and has been missing since then.
President of the Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee has alleged that one of the Sikh girls abducted and converted was mentally unstable. He claims that the girl was lured on the pretext of love and marriage to convert her to Islam. The family of the girl has alleged that she has been married off to a 62-year-old man and had also registered a complaint with the local police. The Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee President also claimed that parents and relatives of the girl were not allowed inside the court due to COVID regulations.