When Tara Sahdev refused to convert to Islam, Rakibul Hasan made her starve, kept her in isolation and threatened her with more physical pain.  After a month of torture, Tara was ready to accept negative public spotlight and decided to report her saga to Mahua Manjhi, the chief of the largest woman rights group in India – The State National Commission for Women.

Tara said that she met Rakibul Hasan when he and a few friends came daily to watch her warm-up and practice shooting on the local shooting grounds. Gradually Rakibul (aka Ranjit Kumar) began talking and then go on dates. After some time they decided to get married and got married July 7th.

After their marriage night, the horror and real nightmare began when  Rakibul Hasan (alias Ranjit Kumar) invited 20-25 Muslim priests and hardliners and forced Tara to convert to Islam. And when she immediately refused, she was violently assaulted by the men as well as had dogs unleashed on her, causing her to be bitten and leaving her with marks and bruises. Mr. Hasan also tried to rape her.

This case has happened in the midst of a national crises called ‘Love Jihad’ where there have been thousands of reported cases where Muslim youth are trained and rewarded by radical Islamic groups to marry and convert infidel (non-Muslim) girls to Islam. Most of the girls targeted have been Hindu, with some Christian and Sikh girls. Just last month  in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, a horrifying case where a Hindu teacher was forcefully gang-raped then converted by a group of Muslim men, including a priest in an Islamic school was reported.

‘Love Jihad’ is not new and has even been a major issue outside India, like the UK (Britain), where many non-Muslim women have been aggressive targeted by young Muslim men to convert to Islam.

Here are some articles of the concerning issue in Britain:
‘Not just White girls, Pak Muslim men sexually target Hindu and Sikh girls as well‘ (TOI)
London Police protect girls forced to convert to Islam (London Evening Standard)

You can view more details about the Tara Sachdev forced conversion to Islam story here:

Asian Human Rights Commission

Rekha, also known as Pubi is 14 years of age and was working at a factory for the manufacturing of bottles for beverages at Gadap Karachi, Sindh province in Pakistan. She was abducted by a driver, in the official vehicle of the factory at 5.30 PM when she was going back to her home with her three sisters and mother. Her father, Mr. Soda, use to pick and drop their family members, three sisters and her mother, from the factory. On the day of the incident, after dropping his two sisters by his motor bike at their house he returned to the factory and was told that Rekha has been forcibly abducted by the driver and supervisor in the factory’s vehicle to unknown place.

The brother, father and mother immediately rushed to the Gadap city police station, Karachi, to file the case of abduction of Rekha. The police refused to entertain the complaint and told them not to worry as she will be returned and the police will take action the next day. When the father and brother insisted that police should follow them as they would not be far from the factory, the police asked for money for fuel for using police van which was not possible from the poor family as they were from the Hindu minority group, the Kohli-Dalit and they have migrated from a remote area of Sindh province, the Mirpur Khas, where they were facing the problems after the recent flood.

The police took five days to file the First Information Report (FIR). The perpetrators and the owner after knowing that on November 5, 2011, the family of the victim successfully filed the FIR they quickly approached a judicial magistrate of Malir city, Mr. Asghar and took some workers from the nearby Madressa, the Muslim seminary and asked the court to accept the court marriage as Miss Rekha has embraced Islam and has changed her name from Rekha to Aasia. The judge never asked the girl if they did so of her own free will and approved the marriage. Her age was mentioned during the process as 18 because the magistrate told them that Pakistan law does not allow marriage of minors. At this moment the mother and other family member reached the court after knowing that she has been produced before the court but the magistrate did not allow them to meet Rekha. The workers from the seminary have also used force to push the girl into the van which was waiting outside the court. The lawyer from the perpetrators, Mr.  Khan threatened before the magistrate that if they created problems over the change of religion then their two sisters will also face the same situation. The judge just ignored the threats.

Since November 5, 2011 her whereabouts are unknown. On the other hand the owner of the factory has terminated the employment of her brother, mother and three other sisters, who are minors, for mentioning the registration number of the car of the factory, saying that the vicitm’s family is destroying the honour of the factory.

It is also informed by the father of the girl that they have been told by seminary people that the girl has been shifted to a tribal area of Pakistan close to Afghanistan border. He apprehends that like other Hindu girls she would have been sold for nefarious designs.

This a common factor in the Sindh province that girls from the religious minority groups particularly from Dalit community of the Hindu, are abducted, raped and then sold for prostitutions. The Muslim Madressas along the borders with India are busy in this business and Sindh government though claims that it is in favour of minority rights never acted to stop such activities of the Muslim fundamentalists groups in its appeasement policies.

Every month in the Sindh province it is reported that more than 200 girls are forced to marry after their abduction and when perpetrators are caught or police reports are filed they use the fictitious marriage certificates from Muslim seminaries and courts have to follow them. Even the Chief Justice of Supreme Court has not taken the consent from the three Hindu girls when they were presented before the court and ordered the registrar to take their statement who recorded their statements before the police and so called husbands. Then on Friday prayers the chief justice has congratulated a perpetrator, the so called husband of one Hindu girl for converting the girl to Islam, the photo of the incident was published next day in many newspapers.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a 14-year-old girl, from the Hindu religious minority community was abducted by gangsters and forcibly converted to Islam. When a police case was filed against the abductors the girl was produced before a Magistrate’s Court by the gangsters to record a statement that she has embraced Islam as her religion. The irony of the judicial process is that the judicial magistrate has accepted her subsequent marriage as legal in spite of the Pakistan law which does not allow the marriage of girls before the age of 16 years. Her age was forged from 14 to 18 by the police and perpetrators before the judicial magistrate who had never asked for evidence about her age.

The father of the victim received information from the police that girl has been shifted to the tribal areas of the Pakistan, close to Afghanistan border for nefarious designs.

The police took five days to file the First Information Report (FIR) providing good time to the perpetrators to manage a forced marriage. The three young sisters, their mother and one brother of the victim were terminated from the employment from the same factory where their sister was employed because the parents of the victim had mentioned the registration number of the car of the factory in which their daughter was abducted.

Please write the letters to the given authorities calling them to safe recovery of Rekha and arrest of the perpetrators the judicial magistrate of the Malir city courts. Please urge them to take actions against those Muslim seminaries who are instrumental in the forcibly conversion to Islam of the girls from the religious minority groups and helping the criminals in the name of Islam. Please also urge them to prosecute the station house officers of the Gadap police station Karachi for his negligence from the official duty and helping the perpetrators for kidnapping and rape of Rekha. The AHRC writes a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief calling for his intervention into this matter.

PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Mr. Asif Ali Zardari
President
President’s Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Tel:+ 92-51-9204801-9214171
Fax: + 92-51-9207458
Email: publicmail@president.gov.pk

2. Mr. Raja Pervez Ashraf,
Prime Minister
Prime Minister House
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 922 1596
Tel: +92 51 920 6111
E-mail: secretary@cabinet.gov.pk

3. Federal Minister for Human Rights
Ministry of Human Rights
Old US Aid building
Ata Turk Avenue
G-5, Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 9204108
Email: sarfaraz_yousuf@yahoo.com

4. Dr. Faqir Hussain
Registrar
Supreme Court of Pakistan
Constitution Avenue, Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: + 92 51 9213452
E-mail: mail@supremecourt.gov.pk

5. Mr. Rehman Malik
Minister for Interior
R Block Pak Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Tel: +92 51 9212026
Fax: +92 51 9202624
E-mail: ministry.interior@gmail.com or interior.complaintcell@gmail.com

6. Dr. Ishrat-ul-Ebad Khan
Governor of Sindh province
Karachi, Sindh Province
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 21 920 5043
Tel: +92 21 920 1201
E-mail: governor@governorsindh.gov.pk

7. Syed Qaim Ali Shah
Chief Minister
Karachi, Sindh Province
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 21 920 2000
Email: pressecy@cmsindh.gov.pk

8. Mr. Justice Musheer Alam
The Chief Justice of Sindh High Court
High Court Building
Saddar, Karachi
Sindh Province
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 21 9213220
E-mail: registrar@sindhhighcourt.gov.pk

9. Ms. Nadia Gabol
Minister for Human Rights
Government of Sindh,
Pakistan secretariat, Barrack 92,
Karachi, Sindh Province
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 21 9207044
Tel: +92 21 9207043
E-mail: lukshmil@yahoo.com

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)