Daily Times

GHOTKI: The case of the alleged abduction, forced conversion and underage marriage of two Hindu girls took a surprising turn when it was found out that the men involved were already married and have children.

Tufail Bhutto — the station house officer (SHO) of the Daharki police station — said the wives of both Safdar Khobar and Barkat Malik have left them after learning of their second marriages and moved back to live with their parents, along with their children.

The police officer noted that both men have children, aged one to five years old. Khobar has three daughters and a son with his first wife and Malik has three daughters from his previous marriage.

Earlier, on March 20, while the Hindu community in the Daharki area of Sindh’s Ghotki district was celebrating Holi, two sisters, Raveena Meghwar and Reena Meghwar, disappeared from their home.

The incident came to light after a video went viral on social media, in which the father and brother of the two girls alleged that they had been abducted and subjected to forced conversion to Islam.

In another video released on social video, the minor girls were seen saying that they accepted Islam of their own free will.

Two days after the video went viral, the Prime Minister issued directives to the Sindh Government to investigate the case.

The investigation showed that the girls had been taken to Rahim Yar Khan and the authorities were directed to take immediate recovery actions.

The two girls had approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking protection and steps to restrain the government, police, and their family from forcing them to return “and their forceful reversion to Hindu religion”.