May 13, 2006	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 14, 1427

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MULTAN, May 12: A Hindu girl from Sindh who embraced Islam and married a Muslim man, has claimed that she and her husband are living under the persistent threat to their lives from her family.

Neelam (21), daughter of a senior government official posted in Karachi, alleged that her father and a top Sindh government functionary belonged to the same village of Thar and were on friendly terms with each other.

“The Sindh government top notch and a state minister in the federal cabinet have been using the police in Sindh and Punjab to hound us,” she added.

Revealing her ‘ordeal’ to Dawn, Neelam said she had embraced Islam on April 10 at a religious school situated in Malir, Karachi, and left her parents’ house on April 12 to marry the man of her choice the next day. She claimed that she left her parents’ house when she was admonished and tortured for converting to another religion.

A graduate of the Mehran Engineering College of Hyderabad, her husband Amjad Shahzad (28), a resident of Dherki area of Ghotki district, was already a married man and father of a one-year-old son. The fact, however, is concealed in the ‘nikahnama’ registered at ward 88, union council 133, Karachi East.

Neelam said she first met Amjad at the place of a mutual friend and gradually developed a liking for him despite knowing that he was a married man. She claimed she was inspired with the teachings of Islam even before meeting Amjad. “I had been reading Islamic Studies as a subject throughout my educational career.”

Neelam said she, her husband and in-laws had been continuously changing their abode after being threatened with ‘dire consequences’ by her father and his powerful friends having political clout.

Currently living in Multan, She had filed a petition with a local court against alleged harassment by her father and the police. The court however dismissed her petition on May 6 with the following remarks: “Runaway marriages may not be appreciated in our society. Even, otherwise, (the) court is not a place for protection to those who commit acts which create ostracism in the society.” The court had based dismissal of her petition taking into account the circumstances that no case had so far been registered against the petitioner.

Neelam however filed the petition, seeking security for her and her husband, with the Multan bench of the Lahore High Court.

The LHC has summoned the Multan district police officer and Neelam’s father to appear before it on May 17.

When contacted, Neelam’s father denied that he or any other person was intimidating her. “How one can expect this from a father?” he asked, saying Neelam was his only daughter and the eldest of his five children. He said he had travelled to Multan when the matter was with a lower court there and had met his daughter on the orders of the court. He had later told the court that Amjad’s armed men were around and he could not talk to his daughter.

Talking to Dawn, he denied the involvement of any political personality in the matter in any capacity. He said he had not lodged the matter with the police because he just wanted to see his daughter at an independent place to know her free will. He had told the lower court in Multan that he suspected that his daughter was under some kind of pressure.