Court settles conversion of three Hindu sisters, cousin

Express Tribune

6 days ago

The controversy surrounding three Hindu sisters and their minor cousin who embraced Islam was settled in a court of law in Sanghar district on Friday apparently to the dismay of the parents.
The court allowed the two adult sisters to live independently and practice their new religion while the police was told to handover the minor sister and cousin to the parents with a condition that the two will not be coerced in the matter of religion.
The court set free the arrested computer teacher Farhan Khaskheli, who was blamed for allegedly kidnapping the complainants children at gunpoint and for compelling them to change religion, and his brother Zulfiqar Khaskheli. They, besides two others, were booked in an FIR lodged on June 18 on the parents' complaint.
The parents of Dashina Bai and Harjeet Kumar, whose Muslim names are Sidra and Abdul Rafay, were directed to submit an undertaking with a personal recognizance (PR) bond of Rs10 million each, assuring that they will not pressurize their children to revert to their old religion. "... [a] person's religious belief isn't tangible and couldn't be seen or touched, as such faith is the matter of heart and conviction, therefore, no court could declare said conversion as invalid and void," the judge Asif Ali underlined.
The court further ordered the police to shift the adult sisters Jiya and Diya, who also renamed themselves as Mariam and Khadija, as well as the minors to Gosha-e-Aafiat Trust of Jamia Masjid Al-Falah in Karachi. The minors' custody will be given to the parents after they submit the PR bond.
During the hearing the three sisters and their male cousin deposed before the court that they accepted Islam without compulsion or greed. They also absolved the accused persons of the charges of kidnapping. "The statements of 17 years old Dashina and 14 years old Harjeet have been recorded and both the minors have deposed that they have embraced Islam with their own free will," the judge noted.
Quoting verse number 256 of Surah Baqrah from the Holy book, the judge stated that Islam prohibited forced conversion. But he distinguished the case in question from the one in which element of force becomes evident.
"... it can't be out of the box to say that minors lacked legal capacity to abjure their religion and the change of religion didn't, ipso facto, deprive a parent of right to custody of a child and applicants being the real parents of minors are entitled to the custody."
Three sisters and their cousin left their home and accepted Islam on June 18. The Hindu community reacted to the incident by alleging that their children have been kidnapped. However, the sisters and their cousins released their video statements on social media, stating that they have embraced Islam. Still the police lodged a kidnapping FIR on the parents' complaint and on June 19 they recovered all the four from a shelter house near Katti Pahari area in Karachi and brought them back to Sanghar. On Friday morning they all were produced before the concerned court to depose.