PESHAWAR: The All Pakistan Minorities Alliance Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday held a protest demonstration against the alleged forced conversion and underage marriage of a Christian girl in Karachi, and demanded of the government to arrest the people involved.

Holding banners and placards inscribed with their demands to recover the 13-year-old girl, the protesters asked for protection of the rights of the minorities.

The protesters were led by All Saint Church pastor Shehzad Murad, All Pakistan Hindu Rights Movement chairman Haroon Sarab Diyal, Minorities’ Alliance president Yousuf George, Kiramat Ghauri, and other community members.

Talking to mediapersons, the minorities’ representatives alleged that the cases pertaining to forced conversion and marriages of underage girls were on the rise but the government was not taking pragmatic steps to stop such incidents.

They demanded of the Sindh government to ensure protection to the minority communities, particularly Hindus and Christians, as maximum of conversion cases had been reported from parts of the province.

They claimed that in most of the forced marriage cases the girls were found underage but no steps were taken by the relevant departments to stem the alarming situation.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2020