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Hindu Woman In Pakistan Escapes Forced Conversion And Marriage To Old Muslim Man, Court Sends Her To “Shelter Home” Despite Her Plea To Reunite With Family

October 20, 2023
The Commune

Recently, a video of a Hindu woman lamenting and crying helplessly, surfaced on social media that highlights the plight of Hindu minorities in the Islamic State of Pakistan. In the video, the harsh reality of forced religious conversion at the hands of a Pakistani Muslim and subsequent coerced marriage to a man old enough to be her father has come to light.

Approximately two months ago, the Hindu woman named Rajeeta Kolhi (some reports note her name as Reeta Meghwar and Reeta Kohli) fell victim to Islamist abductors. The main accused is named Ashiq Ahmadani.

According to Reeta’s account, she was coerced into converting to Islam and forced into a marriage with a Muslim, with the abductors issuing grave threats against her family should she resist.

Just a few days back, she successfully managed to escape from her captors in Badin, Sindh, and sought refuge at a local police station. 

After her appearance in court, she earnestly implored the judges to allow her to be with her parents. To her surprise, the court ruled that she should be placed in the custody of Dar-al Aman, a shelter for women that is typically considered a last resort in sensitive custody cases. However, despite her strong desire to reunite with her parents, the court, following its established procedure, decided to place her in a shelter home. Poor Reeta wept, repeatedly beseeching to be reunited with her parents, even collapsing in distress on the courtyard floor of the court premises.

Minority Rights March, an activist group in Pakistan has condemned the court’s ruling saying that Courts under no circumstance may confine a sui juris adult to a shelter home against his/her wish.

“To confine Rajeeta Kolhi to a shelter home without her consent and against her desire to be set at liberty, is tantamount to illegal confinement whereby her fundamental rights ensured under the Constitution are being curtailed with each passing second. We demand that Rajeeta Kolhi be immediately set at liberty and her abductor(s) be brought to task, and call upon the Learned MIT of the Hon’ble Sindh High Court to take notice of the prima facie unconstitutional (Continued) and illegal order of her confinement and take necessary action against the concerned Judge.”, it said in its statement. 

The condition of Hindu girls and other non-Muslims in the Islamic State of Pakistan is a story of enduring an unimaginable ordeal, marked by persecution, abduction and forced religious conversion, sexual assault, and other unspeakable violations of human rights and dignity. The fact that Hindus in Pakistan lack fundamental rights is a widely known but often unspoken truth, especially by those who consider themselves part of the liberal community.

However, the suffering and anguish experienced by Hindu girls and women in Pakistan are beyond comprehension. It’s an unfortunate reality that being born in such a country as a minority further exacerbates the magnitude of the problem, and this burden is even heavier for females. What compounds the situation is the additional vulnerability faced by those belonging to the Hindu or Christian communities.

The story of Reeta Kohli is only one among the thousands that have gone unreported as Hindus and Christians endure indescribable horrors that are nothing short of spine-chilling. Consequently, it is imperative to acknowledge and understand the immense suffering of the Hindus in Pakistan. Hindu women in Pakistan are subjected to a series of distressing experiences, including abductions, forced conversions to Islam, sexual assaults, and even being coerced into marriages with their abductors.

In a separate incident, an 11-year-old Hindu girl from Tando Allahyar, situated in the Umerkot district of Pakistan, was forcibly abducted by an Islamist man who is more than twice her age. The young Hindu girl, known as Jiji Bheel and hailing from the village of Tando Allahyar in the Sindh province (an area notorious for the abduction, rape, and forced conversion of minority Hindu girls), was taken against her will by a 28-year-old individual named Azim Ghumrani.

This distressing situation serves as a stark reminder and illustration that Pakistan is like a living hell for non-Muslims and highlights the importance of the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019. 

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