Sikhs protest ‘kidnap, conversion of girl’
A large number of Hindu and Sikh pilgrims took part in the Raksha Bandhan festival in Siri Panja Sahib, Hassanabadal. PHOTO: EXPRESS
The Sikh community in Pir Baba, Buner district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) on Sunday blocked the main road as a protest following what they called “the kidnap and forced conversion” of a 26-year-old Sikh schoolteacher.
On Saturday Dena Kumari eloped with a Muslim young man who later got married in a court of law.
Her mysterious and sudden disappearance, however, created great unrest among the community who started their protest at around 2am in the morning and blocked Pir Baba-Mardan Road as a protest.
They lamented that police didn’t cooperate with them and expelled them from the police station instead of telling them the truth.
The road was blocked till 1 pm on Sunday after which local elders contacted them and convinced them to open the main artery.
The girl also reached the police station and produced documents of her court marriage. She recorded a video in which she claimed that she had converted to Islam and married to her Muslim boyfriend and that no kidnapping was involved.
Police, however, took her into custody and shifted her to a Darul Aman as the Sikh community claimed that she had been kidnapped and converted by force.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 22nd, 2022.