Srinagar: Members of Sikh community Monday made fervent appeal to all the political and religious bodies of Kashmir to rise against and stop what they alleged was a “harmful trend of religious conversions” in the Muslim-majority region.
Addressing a press conference here, former legislator from Delhi and member of Shiromani Akali Dal, Majinder Singh Sirsa alleged that “an 18-year-old Sikh girl was abducted, forcibly converted and married off to a 50-year-old Muslim male in Srinagar recently”.
Sirsa while condemning the act, alleged that people from majority Muslim community are tightlipped over the “forcible conversion” of a Sikh girl to Islam, and appealed to the administration to enact an anti-conversion law in the Union territory.
“Our four daughters were forced to convert to Islam in past one month. An 18-years-old girl was recently married off to a middle-aged man in Srinagar. Now it’s being claimed that the girl embraced Islam and married a Muslim male out of her free choice and will,” Sirsa alleged.
The Sikh leader also appealed to the ailing Hurriyat Conference leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani to intervene.
“Where are Abdullah, and Mufti families, why don’t they rise against the growing harmful trend of religious conversions? Where is Syed Ali Shah Geelani Sahab who showered heaps of praises on Sikh community for helping Kashmiri students two years ago?” he asked.
He said that the Sikhs have always been at the forefront to help their Kashmir Muslim brethren whenever they were in trouble.
Sirsa said “the silence maintained by the majority community against the recent act of forcible conversions proves that the tall claims of religious brotherhood are based on falsehood.”
He said the recent act of “abduction, forcible conversion and marriage of a Sikh girl has brought disrepute to the entire Sikh community.”
“We face humiliation; we are being taunted as we have always helped the majority community which has maintained a silence when it comes to the girls of Sikh community. I appeal to my Kashmiri brethren to rise to the occasion and join us to condemn the act,” added Sirsa.
