Tale of two sisters: How civil society saved two minor girls from forced conversion in Pakistan

The arrest of seven men in connection with the abduction and reportedly forced conversion of two Hindu minor girls in Pakistan is the direct result of the pressure that civil society exerted on the authorities.

It is believed that the girls have been rescued and are under police protection. The matter might come up in court on Tuesday. The girls, through their families, have reportedly approached a court in Punjab in Pakistan for protection.

The kidnapping of the two teenagers on the eve of Holi, from their village Hafiz Salman near the town of Daharki in Sindh snowballed into a major issue with a members of the civil society protesting against the atrocities against minorities in Pakistan, and demanding that the government take action. The issue was first brought up by the mainstream media, from where the social media picked it up. Veteran journalist Murtaza Solangi tweeted the common sentiment: “Why do underage Hindu girls find fascination to convert to Islam? Why do they find just husbands? Why not brothers? Why not middle aged, widows? Why not Hindu boys and elderly men? Think about it. Not too difficult to understand.”

On Sunday, there was a huge protest of Karachi citizens outside the Karachi press club, with organisations like Aurat Foundation and Stop Forced Conversion Committee demanding that the government take action against perpetrators of such crimes.

Politicians from both sides of the border used the incident to trade barbs and hopefully score some brownie points. After former Supreme Court judge Justice Markandey Katju tweeted about the incident, Pakistan's Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry was quick to retort: “Rest assured, this is Naya Pakistan, we will not allow it to become Modi's India where the rights of minorities have become a joke.” The minister later tweeted that Prime Minister Imran Khan himself had intervened and asked the chief minister of Punjab to look into the matter (the girls were reportedly taken to Rahim Yar Khan, Punjab, from Sindh). Chaudhry also said Khan had instructed the Punjab and Sindh governments to form a joint strategy to avert such incidents of abduction and forced conversions in the future.

The Pakistan Hindu Council, headed by Tehreek-e-Insaf member of National Assembly Ramesh Vankwani, had also put out a message regarding the abduction of the girls and asked the government to raise the minimum age of marriage to 18.

Abduction of Hindu girls is common in the districts of Mirpur Khas, Tharparkar and Umerkot in Sindh, which has a sizable Hindu population. In January this year, Anusha Kumari (16), was abducted and forcefully married to a Muslim man. Over the last few years, many such cases have been reported. In fact, a 2014 report from the Movement for Solidarity and Peace said nearly 1,000 non-Muslim girls are being forcefully converted to Islam every year. The pattern is nauseatingly the same, and usually, no action is taken, even if the matter is reported and publicised, the report pointed. Most often, the girls are kept in custody for a few weeks, repeatedly raped, then married to the abductor. They rarely return home.

This time, however, the matter became a civil rights issue, and there was pressure on the government to act. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj too took up the issue, saying she had asked the Indian High Commission in Islamabad to give her a report on the developments. To this, Chaudhry promptly responded that it was an internal matter of Pakistan and Swaraj should look into the minority rights violations in her own country.

However, with the international focus on Pakistan, as well as societal pressure from within building up, this time, the authorities needed to show they had taken some action.