Turmoil in Valley

 

 

 

Forceful conversion and abduction of two Sikh girls to Islam have triggered a massive communal tension in Jammu and Kashmir. According to Sikh leaders, the episode has exposed a pattern of ethnic cleansing. Such incidents are very common in Pakistan and Afghanistan where Sikh and Hindu girls are routinely abducted and forcibly converted to Islam.

 

Meanwhile, the woman who was sent to her family after she appeared in court, married Sukhbir Singh, a resident of Srinagar. At least four Sikhs have been kidnapped and “forcefully converted” in the province, according to Sikh community officials.

 

The Akal Takht has come forward with the demand for an anti-conversion law in Jammu and Kashmir, in line with the similar legislation in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

 

In a letter to Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, the religious body ‘Sri Akal Takht Sahib’ based in Punjab’s Amritsar, the town that houses the iconic Golden Temple, has expressed its dissatisfaction. “….There is an interfaith marriage law in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh against forceful religious conversion. We want the same law should be implemented in Jammu and Kashmir for the safety of Sikh minority girls,” chief of Akal Takht, Giani Harpreet Singh, said in his letter.

 

He further said, “There is a strong outrage among the Sikh community worldwide on such repeated incidents.”

 

Manjinder Singh Sirsa, president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), also led a delegation to J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, who assured them the needful to ensure the return of the girls. “The delegation took up the matter of forced marriage of Sikh girls in Srinagar. The Lt Governor addressed our concerns related to the safety of Sikh girls in the Valley and this harmful trend of religious conversion,” the DSGMC said.

 

Bibi Jagir Kaur, president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), the most prominent and influential Sikh group in Punjab, also expressed sympathy for the family and the daughter, who was forcibly converted to Islam in Kashmir. She advocated that “people in the country” should stick to the religion they are born in.

 

Initially in denial, the grand mufti Nasir-ul-Islam of Jammu and Kashmir had to make a conciliatory statement after the issue had become a major controversy. He said, “The Sikh brethren are a part and parcel of Kashmir’s society. There is no place for forcible conversion in Islam and reports of forcible conversion of Sikh girl to other religion at a gun-point can never be considered as a conversion in Islamic jurisprudence.”

 

Reports said, teams of the Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulema (MMU), a body of religious leaders and religious bodies, also visited the family of one Sikh girl “who was forcibly married” to an elderly Muslim man. Angry protests and demonstrations were held in Jammu. The community leaders said it was worse that a 60-year-old elderly Muslim with two wives married the 18-year-old girl. One Sikh protestor said these conversions to Islam were like “part of the ethnic cleansing”.

 

However, PDP leader Md Rashid Qurashi said his party would “never ever support” any strong anti-conversion law. In one case (of the two fresh cases of conversion), the woman has said that she had opted for the marriage herself.