CHANDIGARH: Union Home Minister Amit Shah has assured to look into the alleged abduction and forced conversion of two Sikh girls in Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) president Manjinder Singh Sirsa said.
Shah assured us about the safety of the girls and they would be soon reunited with their families, Sirsa said, adding that the Home Minister would be meeting a Sikh delegation from J&K to discuss concerns of the community.
“Our delegation will meet him in Delhi, as the two Sikh girls were kidnapped at gunpoint and forcibly converted and wedded to elderly men of a different religion,” the DSGMC president claimed. The minister is in touch with J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and monitoring the entire situation, he added.
The two girls are said to be from Budgam district and Srinagar.
Meanwhile, Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) president Jagir Kaur asserted that no one can force a person to adhere to doctrines of a particular religion. Kaur stressed on the role of family in building foundation of future generations, saying that it is the family’s duty to educate and encourage their children to follow the Sikh way of life.
“The SGPC can only preach about the religion but no one can force a religion on someone.” The family and relatives of the girls who got married to Muslim families had approached the SGPC and also tried to convince them to return to Sikhism, she said. “But the girls did not listen.” Earlier, Sri Akal Takhat Sahib, the highest temporal seat of Sikhism, wrote to the J&K L-G seeking a law to prevent forceful religious conversions on the pretext of marriages.
Law against conversion demanded
Sri Akal Takhat Sahib, highest temporal seat of Sikhism, demanded an anti-conversion law in J&K on the lines of the ones present in UP and Madhya Pradesh