Forced conversion of religion: National Assembly body recommends immediate steps to control issue

National Assembly's Standing Committee on Religious Affairs & Inter-Faith Harmony has expressed serious concern over forcefully conversion of religion and marriage after kidnapping of teenage Hindu girl and recommended that the federal and Sindh governments should take immediate steps to control this practice.
The Committee met with Hafiz Abdul Kareem in the chair at Parliament House on Tuesday and discussed the issue of killing of Christian Couple in District Kasur, kidnapping of Hindu girl and Hajj Scheme. Hindu community MNA Bhawan Das raised the issue of kidnapping of Hindu girls in Sindh and said that such cases were increasing day by day but provincial government was not taking any serious step to control the issue. He said many people of Hindu community were migrating to other countries due to those incidents particularly in rural areas of Sindh.
While raising the issue of 12-year old Hindu girl Anjali Kumari, Bhawan Das said she was forced to convert her religion after kidnapping. He said the incidents of forceful conversions were increasing and many people of Hindu community were migrating. He appealed the federal and provincial governments to take action against such incidents. He also appealed the Apex court to take suo motto notice of the incident. The Committee also strongly condemned Peshawar terrorist incident in which many innocent students were killed and said all political parities should unite to face terrorism.
The Committee also strongly condemned the killing of Christian Couple in District Kasur and unanimously passed a resolution and recommended that Ministry might take up the issue at appropriate forum for the proper investigation, so that the culprits could be penalised accordingly.
The Committee highly appreciated the arrangements made by the Ministry during the recent Hajj 2014, especially the arrangements of residence and provision of food to the pilgrims. The Committee also appreciated the efforts of the Honourable Minister for Religious Affairs & Inter-faith Harmony for historical arrangements during the recent Hajj.
The Committee recommended that quota of Government Hajj Scheme should be increased for upcoming Hajj so that maximum people could be benefited. Earlier, Pir Ameer-ul-Hasnaat, Minister of State for Religious Affairs & Inter-faith Harmony briefly apprised the Committee about the efforts made by them to provide maximum facilities to the pilgrims and problems faced by them in this regard. Following MNAs, Syed Imran Ahmad Shah, Bhawan Das, Asiya Naz Tanoli, Shahida Akhtar Ali, Shagufta Jumani, Syed Amir Ali Shah Jamote, Malik Abdul Ghaffar Dogar, Ramesh Lal, Kishwer Zehra, Sahihzada Muhammad Yaqub, Molvi Agha Muhammad attended the meeting.