Supreme Court acts

Daily Times, December 17, 2005
Conversion from Hinduism to Islam: SC orders security for three girls
By Mohammad Kamran

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered that three sisters, who recently converted to Islam from Hinduism, be shifted from the seminary they were staying at to the Edhi Centre. The court further ordered the police to protect the girls while it ascertained if they were forced to convert to Islam.

The court was hearing a case wherein it was alleged that three sisters were kidnapped and forced to become Muslims. An FIR was lodged regarding girls’ abduction and rape. The three sisters were later found in a religious seminary learning Islamic education.

The Supreme Court took up the application and summoned the girls to record their statement on free will. Appearing on notice, DSP Clifton Town-II Muhammad Hashim Memon produced the sisters in court and submitted that the girls had converted upon their own free will.

The sisters told the court that the FIR registered against their abduction and rape was false and they converted voluntarily. Sanu Umra, the girls’ father, told the court that the madrassa administration was not allowing his family to meet the girls. The chief justice observed that parents could not be ignored even if their children had changed their religion, ordering that Umra and his family be allowed to meet the girls. He also directed Deputy Attorney General Naheeda Mehboob Elahi to supervise an hour-long family meeting in the committee room. Later, the girls said that they had embraced Islam by their own will.

Supreme Court Bar Association President Malik Muhammad Qayyum, who was assisting the court, said the grils’ rights and their parents were the same as before embracing the Islam. They girls started crying when they were ordered to move to the Edhi Centre and pleaded to be allowed to live in the madrassa. The court assured them that their religious education would not be disturbed.

The bench issued special directives to the Karachi DPO to provide security for the girls during their stay at Edhi home and their movement from the Edhi Centre to the seminary.