Ghotki girls are adult: report

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday, while hearing a petition filed by two Ghotki sisters who were allegedly forcibly converted from Hinduism and married to Muslim men, formed a five-member commission to probe whether the girls were forcibly converted and if they were underage at the time of their marriage.

A bench headed by Justice Athar Minallah heard the petition filed by the girls and their husbands seeking protection, Geo News reported. As the hearing went under way, a medical report prepared by Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) radiology department was presented before the court.

Raveena and Reena from Daharki in Ghotki district of Sindh are 19-and-a-half years old and 18-and-a-half years old respectively, the report stated. The ages of the sisters were determined through a bone X-ray, it added. The report further recommended a dental age test to further attest the ages of the two girls. The court then constituted a five-member commission to probe the matter and whether the girls were underage at the time of their marriage to the Muslim men. The board comprises scholar Mufti Taqi Usmani and four others, Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Chairperson Dr Mehdi Hasan, National Commission on the Status of Women Chairperson Khawar Mumtaz and human rights activist IA Rehman, who were earlier appointed as amicus curiae to assist the court. The hearing of the case was then adjourned. The government had taken notice of the incident after two videos went viral on social media. In one of the videos, the girls’ father and brother revealed the details and claimed that they were abducted from their residence, and forcefully converted from Hinduism to Islam before they were subjected to underage marriages. In the video, the girls' father had claimed that they were 13 and 14 years old. However, a separate video of the girls had also gone viral, in which they said that they accepted Islam of their own free will.