Pak: Christian girl forcibly converted to Islam

The girl, Faiza Mukhtar, who is studying in a government school in Sheikhupura town, was taken to a Madrassa by her school principal where the alleged forced religious conversion took place.

Islamabad:In yet another incident of forced conversion of girls from minority communities in Pakistan, a 15-year-old Christian student was allegedly forcibly converted to Islam by her school teacher in Punjab province.

The girl, Faiza Mukhtar, who is studying in a government school in Sheikhupura town, was taken to a Madrassa by her school principal where the alleged forced religious conversion took place.

According to Pakistani journalist Naila Inayat, the girl's family is also being allegedly forcibly converted to Islam. The teacher, who taught Arabic to the girl in the school, told her that she cannot go back home as she was now a Muslim.

"Yet another case of forced conversion in Pakistan: 15-year-old Christian girl Faiza Mukhtar converted to Islam in Sheikhupura, Punjab. Parents say the girl was taken to a madrassa by her school principal and was forced to convert. Now the poor family is also being asked to convert," Inayat's tweet read.

"The teacher who taught Arabic to the girl in the govt school told her you can't go back home now as you're a Muslim," she said in another tweet.

This is the third incident in over a week where girls from the minority communities in Pakistan have been allegedly forced to convert to Islam.

Earlier this month, a Hindu girl, identified as Renuka Kumari, was allegedly abducted from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in Sukkur in Sindh province on Saturday and was forcefully converted to Islam.

In August, a 19-year-old Sikh girl, Jagjit Kaur, too faced a similar ordeal when she was forcibly converted to Islam at gunpoint and made to marry a Muslim man in Lahore's Nankana Sahib after the teenager went missing for several days.

Jagjit is the daughter of Bhagwan Singh, a 'granthi' (priest) of Gurdwara Tambu Sahib.

In Pakistan, many such incidents are regularly reported where Hindu, Sikh and Christian girls are forcibly converted to Islam and married to Muslim men.

The recent incidents have come at a time when Pakistan has been ranting up its diabolic rhetoric of the so-called mistreatment of minorities in India, particularly Muslims, ever since New Delhi decided to revoke Article 370 that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir.