LAHORE: The teenage Sikh girl, who was allegedly abducted and converted to Islam before being married to a Muslim man in Pakistan’s Punjab province, on Saturday refused to go home despite the provincial governor’s plea, fearing threat to her life, an official said.
Punjab Governor Chaudhary Muhammad Sarwar met the girl at a shelter home in Lahore and requested her to go back to her family but she refused, citing a threat to her life, he said.
The girl, who is the daughter of a Sikh priest, was on Friday sent to Darul Aman (shelter home) on a court order after she told the judge that she married Mohammad Hassan of her locality with her own free will.
Kaur’s family alleged that she was converted to Islam at gunpoint and forced to marry a Muslim boy. Her family says she is 18 years of age.
“On Saturday, Governor Sarwar met with the Sikh girl at Lahore’s Darul Aman and tried his best to persuade her to return her parents’ home but she declined,” an official of the Punjab government told PTI.
He said the girl told the governor that she loved Hassan and married him with her own free will.
Kaur said she feared for her life if she returned to her parents’ home in Nankana Sahib, 80 kms from Lahore.
An FIR was registered on Thursday against six people in the case.
Police have arrested one of the suspects named Arsalan, a friend of the Hassan, who is also the prime accused in the case and currently on a pre-arrest bail.
Police on Saturday detained 10 more people, including relatives and friends of Hassan, in connection with the case.
The official said that the governor even told her that “her marrying a man outside her religion is becoming a religious matter and there has been tension in Nankana Sahib among Sikhs and Muslims, but she did not budge.”
The Sikh community in Nankana Sahib held protests demanding return of the girl back to her family.
Some reports also said that the Sikh community has announced a ban on the entry of Muslims in gurudwaras including Gurudwara Janamasthan, the birth place of Guru Nanak Dev, until the girl is reunited with her family and action is taken against the culprits. (PTI)
