'Conversion Terrorism' in Pakistan

[Guest guest]

Karachi, Pakistan (December 8, 2005): Meet Sanno Amra and his wife

Champa: a middle-aged Hindu couple. They live in a small, simple but

spotlessly clean home in Karachi's Punjab Colony.

 

Until six weeks ago, they lived with their five children, reasonably

content with their lot. Sanno worked as a chauffeur, and his wife

cooked for a family.

 

On October 18, their lives suddenly fell apart: Champa returned home

from work to discover that her three oldest daughters were missing -

Reena (21), Usha (19) and Rima (17) had seemingly vanished without a

trace. This is any parent's worst nightmare, but the couple's woes

had only begun.

 

After searching frantically for the girls, they went to the local

police station where the SHO put them off without registering a case.

 

A couple of days later, they met the deputy superintendent of police

for Clifton. This proved to be the only bright spot in the entire

tragic episode, for DSP Raza Shah went out of his way to help.

 

He forced his subordinates to file an FIR, and his intervention was

invaluable in ensuring the safety of the parents. And just for the

record, the MQM 'sector-in-charge' also lent them his organisation's

support.

 

On October 22, a police FIR for kidnapping was duly prepared, naming

three young men from the neighbourhood as the principal suspects.

Immediately, Sanno and his wife started getting threats from their

neighbours.

 

Earlier they had never had any problems, although they were the only

Hindu family in a predominantly Muslim locality. But now, the same

people were pressuring them to remove the names of the local boys

from the FIR.

 

Within days, they received a package by courier containing three

identical affidavits signed by their daughters, stating that they had

converted to Islam of their own free will.

 

The declaration concluded: "That since my parents are Hindu and after

conversion of my religion, it is not possible for me to live and pass

my life in Hindu system/society [sic] and therefore, I have decided

to live separately..."

 

According to their affidavits, the girls (now calling themselves

Afshan, Anam and Nida) were living in the hostel of madrassa Taleem-

ul-Quran, and were being instructed by a local moulvi.

 

On November 10, a court order directed the police and the

administrators of the seminary to arrange a meeting between the girls

and their parents.

 

When Sanno and Champa finally met their daughters, they were shocked

to see that they were in burqas that concealed them from head to toe,

leaving only their eyes uncovered.

 

The eyes of the youngest girl were bloodshot from weeping. At this

supposedly private meeting, a dour woman was present throughout as

were a moulvi and a couple of cops.

 

In subdued voices muffled by heavy fabric, the girls said they wanted

to stay where they were.

 

SOURCE: The Times of India Online. 'Conversion terrorism' in

Pakistan, by IRFAN HUSAIN [Thursday, December 08, 2005 01:49:57

amAGENCIES]

URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1323281.cms

[Guest guest]

This smacks of a closed mind. I was shocked reading this article in the

TOI, not because I did not know Islam has more than its fair of confused

followers, but because Pakistan appears to be evolving towards more tolerance.

Perpetrators of this forced conversion should converted to the religion of

their victims and forced to follow those rights and rituals of their new

religion.

 

Devi Bhakta <devi_bhakta wrote: Karachi, Pakistan (December

8, 2005): Meet Sanno Amra and his wife

Champa: a middle-aged Hindu couple. They live in a small, simple but

spotlessly clean home in Karachi's Punjab Colony.

 

Until six weeks ago, they lived with their five children, reasonably

content with their lot. Sanno worked as a chauffeur, and his wife

cooked for a family.