PESHAWAR, Feb 19: The parents of a Sikh girl who has been held by a tribesman for the last 40 days in the remote Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency and is said to have embraced Islam have given up all hopes for the recovery of their daughter.

“I have left the matter to divine justice,” Kirpar Singh, the uncle of Harvinder Kaur, whose Islamic name is Amina, told Dawn on Wednesday, adding that he had done everything in his power to retrieve the girl “but the world belongs to the powerful”.

The kidnappers, Mr Singh alleged, had refused to produce the girl either before a Jirga or the political administration of the agency.

Harvinder Kaur’s family claims she is only six years’ old, while her present custodians, a Malikdinkhel family headed by Nasir Khan, say she is 12 years.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has constituted a fact-finding committee to visit Tirah Valley and ascertain the position about the alleged abduction of Harvinder Kaur.

The coordinator of the HRCP, NWFP chapter Mohammad Tariq said that the commission cannot comment on the issue, unless it received a final report of the committee.

Dr Sahib Singh, member of the Peshawar City District Council, said that they had suggested to the government that the girl should be produced before media and the agency administration.

“We believe that she (Kaur) is six years’ old and how can a minor decide about religion,”Dr Singh said.

He alleged that when Kaur’s family refused to pay ransom to the captors’ family, they declared that the girl had converted to Islam.

The elders of Sikh community said that governor NWFP Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah had assured them that the  political authorities would recover the girl, otherwise the government would take action against the tribesmen.