Case registered over child marriage, conversion

Provincial Minister Arora contacts father of girl

LAHORE:

A case has been registered against the those who allegedly forcibly converted and married an 11-year-old non-Muslim girl in the Ferozwala area of Sheikhupura district.

Punjab Minister for Minority Affairs Ramesh Singh Arora ordered action over the incident.

According to a resident of Ferozwala, Salim Masih, officials from the local police station went to his home on March 27 and told him to appear in the Ferozwala court then next day along with his daughter.

When he appeared in the court along with his daughter and some other relatives, he was told that their former neighbour Imran Sarfaraz had filed an application against them.

According to Masih, Sarfaraz showed the birth certificate of his daughter to the court, according to which her age was only 11 years, while a marriage certificate filed with the application mentioned the date of marriage as October 10, 2023.

After this, Sarfaraz pressed the family to marry off the girl after her conversion to Islam.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Masih’s daughter said that the suspect was her neighbour who had made her sign the marriage documents under the pretext of taking her to a water park.

In view of the evidence, the court rejected Sarfaraz’s plea and instructed the police to take legal action against him, his mother and marriage witnesses.

Minister Ramesh Singh Arora contacted Salim after learning about the incident and directed the police to immediately register a case against the suspect.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th, 2024.