SUKKUR: A woman, Mahwish, along with her husband, Ameer Bukhsh Wassan, filed a petition in the Sindh High Court here on Monday to seek protection for the couple’s life from her parents and close relatives after she embraced Islam and contracted a freewill marriage. The court has fixed the matter for Tuesday (Sept 12).

Ms Mahwish, whose original name is Aarti Kumari, appeared before local journalists outside the court and stated that she served as a teacher at a private school in Gambat town of Khairpur district and contracted a freewill marriage with her colleague, Mr Wassan, after embracing Islam at the hands of Maulvi Asadullah Memon at Gole Majid in Barrage Colony, Sukkur, on Sunday evening. She said she adopted Mahwish as her new name and Maulvi Rehmatullah Soomro performed the Nikah.

In her petition for protection, the woman has named her father, Raj Kumar, brother Heera Lal, uncle Mahesh Kumar and an influential figure of Gambat, Beebu Mal, stating that they were threatening the couple with dire consequences. The petition was filed through advocate Ashiq Ali Shaikh and advocate Hubdar.

Meanwhile, the woman’s father and other close relatives have claimed that Aarti Kumari was kidnapped and subjected to forced conversion. They have lodged a kidnap report at the Ranipur police station of Gambat.

KHAIRPUR: The Shah Latif Foundation held a protest demonstration outside the Khairpur Press Club on Monday against the alleged kidnapping of Aarti Kumari.

Leading the protest, Faqeer Sahib Latifi, Dr Gulshan Iqbal and Rafique Ahmed observed that it was the latest of a series of such incidents of suspicious conversion and freewill marriage involving a Hindu woman and a Muslim man taking place in Sindh over the past few years.

They said the Hindu community in the province was feeling increasingly insecure due to such incidents. They said protection to all citizens’ life, property and honour without any discrimination of faith was a responsibility of the state.

They said fears of the minority community must be allayed.

HYDERABAD: Awami Tehreek leader Rasool Bux Palijo on Monday observed that murder, kidnapping and forced conversion of young women in Sindh indicated primitive mindset.

In a statement issued here, he alleged that the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution and law were being violated to kill, kidnap and forcibly convert women for marriage.

He urged media personnel, intellectuals, lawyers, students, teachers and others to raise their voice and play their role in putting an end to such acts, which were dangerous to society. He also observed that tribal system under which women were killed was thrust upon Sindh.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2017