Following protests in Jammu and Kashmir by Sikh groups alleging two women from the community in Srinagar were “kidnapped, converted, and married” to men of a different religion, one of the women has denied the allegations, claiming that she converted to Islam and married the man of her own free will.
In a video she posted on social media, the woman identified as Danmeet Kaur, says that she is ’29-years-old and not a child’ and that the she was “not forced by anyone” for marrying a man from a different religion and she did it out of her own free will.
“Don’t bring religion or minorities into it; I am aware of my rights as granted by the Supreme Court of India,” the woman says in the video.
The woman also says that she converted to Islam in 2012 and married her batch mate Muzzaffar out of her own free will in 2014.
Her family, however, said that she’d been pressurized by some people to make the video. The woman’s brother, Krishan Singh, questioned the claims made by her in a video posted on Facebook by Akali Dal leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa, and asked: “if she was married in 2012, why was she in our home for so many years?”
“She’s been threatened to make the video, I think. It can be understood from the contradictions in the age of the girl in the videos”, Krishan Singh said. He threatened to commit suicide if his sister is not returned to the family.
Sikh groups also made accusations that the woman was forced to convert and marry at gunpoint.
Akali Dal leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa led a protest in Srinagar on Sunday, he alleged that the woman was kidnapped, forcibly converted, and married to a elder man from a different religion.
A Sikh delegation also met the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir over the issue. Speaking to NDTV, Manijnder Sirsa said, “Home Minister Amit Shah has assured us about the safety of minority Sikh girls in the valley and that the girls would be soon returned to their families. He has given time to meet the Sikh delegation soon to discuss their concerns.”
Grand Mufti of Jammu and Kashmir, Mufti Nisar ul Islam said that Sikhs are part and parcel of Kashmiri society and that there is no place for “forcible conversion in Islam”.
“First of all, there is no place for conversion by force in Islam. Conversion to Islam has to be by one’s conviction and choice without any force or compulsion,” Mufti Nasir said.
“No one will be allowed to play with the faith of Sikh brethren. There should be strict action against wrongdoers,” he added.
However, at a press meet on Monday, Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) president Bibi Jagir Kaur informed that one of the two women, does not want to reconvert and neither does she want to come back to her family.
According to a report by The Tribune, the SGPC president, while addressing the media in Patiala said, “As Sikhs, it is the family’s duty to educate and encourage their children to follow the Sikh way of life. We, as the SGPC can only preach about the religion but no one can force a religion on someone.”
She informed that the girl’s family and relatives had approached SGPC, requesting them to try and convince their daughter to revert to Sikhism and come back home. “The girl instead did not relent and as such, we can’t force anything on her,” Jagir Kaur said.
