KARACHI, March 20: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday directed the Sindh police chief to provide protection to a girl embroiled in a conversion controversy and to implement a previous court order.

The counsel for Rinkle Kumari, who according to one of her relatives was allegedly kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam before being married off to Syed Naveed Shah, moved a contempt of court application in court.

The girl had identified herself as Syeda Faryal Bibi during a press conference she held recently at the Karachi Press Club.

The lawyer submitted that the high court had sent the girl to a state-run shelter on March 12 with the direction to its administration not to allow her parents or the man who claimed to be her husband to meet her till March 26, when she would be produced before the Supreme Court.