Police protection ordered for woman who converted to Islam

SHC also seeks provincial, federal law officers’ progress reports on detention cases

In the backdrop of impassioned criticism of the Sindh government’s new law banning forced conversions, the high court has ordered police protection for a Hindu woman who claims to have converted to Islam of her own accord and her husband.

Petitioner Salma told a Sindh High Court (SHC) bench that she converted to Islam and then married Ali on December 8 without being forced to do either.

She said her family was upset over her conversion and subsequent marriage, adding that her family had filed a false case of kidnapping at the Manghopir police station against her spouse and in-laws.

She also told the court that she feared that her family could get her and her husband murdered by declaring them Karo-Kari, and requested the bench to provide them with police protection.

She claimed that the police had already picked up her brother-in-laws and were carrying out raids to arrest more of her spouse’s family members.  After conducting the preliminary hearing of the petition, the SHC issued notices to the advocate general, the prosecutor general and others.

The bench also ordered police protection for the couple in the meantime, and directed the investigating officer to appear in court in the second week of January with the investigation report of the case.

 

Detention cases

The high court also directed the provincial and federal law officers to submit progress reports regarding recovery of citizens who were allegedly detained by the personnel of the law enforcement and paramilitary agencies.

Alia Anam, Mumtaz Begum, Nasreen Bano and others submitted in their petition that Atiq Ahmed, Sheikh Mohammad Kaleem, Irshad Ali and Inam-ur-Rehman were picked up from the Ramaswami, Toll Plaza and Ferozabad areas, and their whereabouts were hitherto unknown.

They told the SHC bench that the police were neither disclosing the whereabouts of the detainees nor providing the details of the cases registered against them.

The court directed the provincial law officer to refer the case of Kaleem to the provincial task force and submit the progress report.

The bench also directed the Ferozabad police to register an FIR of his kidnapping and submit the progress report in the next hearing.  In the detention case of Rehman, the SHC directed the Rangers to file comments with regard to the arrest or detention.