Provide protection to couple who converted to Islam, orders SHC

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed police to provide protection to a couple, who converted to Islam and married of their own free will against the wishes of their Christian family.

Sehrish and Mohammad Ali, whose previous names were Sanita and Paterson, submitted in their petition that they were cousins and had converted to Islam and married in Lahore last year.

In a recent hearing, their counsel submitted that the father of Sehrish, who was annoyed with the marriage, had registered a kidnapping case against Ali and his family members for kidnapping his daughter at the Mustafa Town police station in Lahor.

The lawyer informed the high court that the couple had shifted to Karachi due to death threats and had also sought protection from the Karachi police but no security was being provided to them.

He requested the SHC to quash the proceedings pending against Ali as Sehrish was his legal spouse, and direct police to provide them protection.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro issued notices to the Sindh advocate general and others and in the meantime ordered that protection be provided to the couple and they be dealt with in accordance with the law.

The SHC on Saturday directed police and investigation agencies to submit a progress report with regard to the kidnapping of a woman along with her four-year-old daughter by unidentified persons.

The direction came on a petition of Mohammad Mansoor Bari who had submitted that his wife Durdana and four-year-old daughter had been whisked away by unidentified persons from the Samanabad area on August 2.

He submitted that he asked several police stations about his wife and daughter but the police had no information about their whereabouts. He requested the high court to direct police and law enforcement agencies to recover them.

The SHC issued notices to the Sindh inspector general of police, Rangers director general and others, and directed police and law enforcement agencies to submit a progress report with regard to the whereabouts of the missing persons on the next hearing.