PESHAWAR: A dispute over conversion to Islam of a Kalash girl sparked a clash between a group of enraged Muslims and members of her community in the Bamburate Valley of Chitral district on Thursday.

According to locals, the clash forced police to use teargas in an attempt to disengage the furious mobs. However, Chitral’s police chief expressed his ignorance about use of teargas.

About 3,000 Kalash live in Bamburate, Birir and Rambur Valleys — all in southern Chitral.

A villager told Dawn by phone from Chitral that a 14-year-old Kalash girl living in Bamburate village converted to Islam on Wednesday “under the guidance” of a local Muslim, left her home and decided to stay with the man’s family in the same village.

But Luke Rehmat, a Kalash activist, told Dawn that the girl, a student of class IX, had a change of heart on Thursday, saying that she had made a mistake in converting to Islam and returned to her home.

“But at around 10 o’clock in the morning, a group of villagers started marching on the Kalash quarter of Bamburate village. They alleged that the girl’s relatives had forcibly taken her away from the Muslim home and compelled her to go back on conversion,” Mr Rehmat said.

Attempts by elders from both sides to defuse the situation were fruitless as a large crowd surrounded a Kalash house, the activist said. “The crowd didn’t spare me too, trying to hit me with batons and stones.”

Police finally intervened, lobbing teargas shells to disperse the protesters.

Another eyewitness said a contingent of the Pakistan Army deputed in the upper part of the valley reached the area late in the evening.

He alleged that “Muslims have taken the girl away from her home and she is now staying at the house of a Muslim family”.

However, a police official said the district administration had brought the girl to “a neutral place”. “The situation is under control and the administration will meet representatives of the two sides on Friday to sort things out,” he added.

Police had not registered an FIR till late on Thursday evening.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2016