Hindu Girl Rescued After Forced Marriage and Conversion in Pakistan: A Growing Crisis for Religious Minorities

A Pakistani Hindu girl has been reunited with her family after enduring a three-month ordeal of kidnapping, forced conversion, and marriage to a Muslim man, following a court order in Sindh province.

The lower court in Umerkot, located approximately 310 kilometers east of Karachi, issued the reunion order for Sunita Kumari Maharaj on Saturday, as confirmed by Shiva Kaachi, a Hindu activist who assisted her parents with the legal proceedings.

Sunita had been abducted from Kunri, a town in the Mirpurkhas district, before being subjected to forced religious conversion and marriage to a significantly older Muslim man.

According to local Hindu community leaders and human rights activists, Sunita represents one of the few fortunate cases where a Hindu girl has received some measure of justice in such circumstances.

"Sunita's case is not an isolated one, and these systematic kidnappings, forced conversions and marriages of Hindu girls are a crisis that continues to terrorise our community in Sindh," stated Advocate Chandar Kohli from Umerkot on Monday.

He explained that after Sunita's parents and activists filed a case, she was located in Umerkot. Despite her testimony of being kidnapped and forced into conversion and marriage, the court initially placed her in a safe house after multiple hearings.

"The biggest problem is that in most cases the accused produce fake documents to prove their marriage is legal and from free will by the victims, who are girls who mostly belong to poor families who don't have the resources or knowledge to plead their cases," Kohli elaborated.

"Which is why several Hindu leaders have now been actively encouraging more educated Hindus to get involved since this is a big issue for our community," he added.

In a similar case last month, a 15-year-old Hindu girl who allegedly experienced kidnapping, rape, and forced marriage after conversion to Islam appealed before a court in Pakistan's Sindh province to be allowed to return to her family.

The teenage girl appeared before a sessions court in Mirpurkhas district on October 10, informing the judge that she had been kidnapped, converted, and married to an elderly Muslim man against her will. The court directed authorities to keep her in a safe house pending a final ruling.