The Abduction. The Denial. The LOVE?? Exposing Pakistan’s Propaganda in the Jagjit Kaur case

A few days ago, in a case of shocking incident of atrocities on minorities of Pakistan, a 19 year old Sikh girl was forcibly converted to Islam and made to marry a Muslim man. The victim, named Jagjit Kaur was renamed as ‘Ayesha’ after conversion to Islam. This incident happened in Nankana Sahib, Punjab and the father of the victim is ‘priest’ in a local Gurudwara.

The issue set the internet ablaze, and soon Sikh community across the world including Pakistan started widespread protest.  Shiromani Akali Dal spokesperson Manjinder S Sirsa shared a video of girl’s family on Twitter, he also asked PM Modi to raise the issue in global forums like United Nations.

The global protest against abduction of Sikh girl, in the backdrop of three-day international Sikh convention scheduled to be organised in Lahore from August 31, has inflicted a huge blow to the global image of Pakistan. As per a report by The Tribune, the event is expected to be attended by around 50 Sikh scholars from across the globe. The prominent Sikh leaders around the globe might boycott the event given the atrocities on Sikh community in Pakistan.

“I request Sikh Opinion Leaders taking part in International Sikh Convention at Lahore to boycott this convention until Jagjit Kaur is returned to her parents. We all must stand united to ensure freedom of religion for our Sikh brothers in Pakistan,” said Sirsa.

In a bid to control the damage, and avoid boycott of the Sikh convention, Pakistani government claimed that the girl has been returned to her family, and 8 convicts have been arrested in the case. Many media organizations, including news agency ANI and NDTV carried out the story. However, later, it was found that the girl is yet to be returned to her family.

“My sister has not been returned,” said the brother of abducted girl. “A video has been circulated on social media that my sister Jagjit Kaur has been handed over to us and culprits are arrested. I want to say that this is absolutely fake news,” he added.

The Pakistani man, who married the converted girl, is member of terror outfit Jama’at-ud-Da’wah (JuD). The Islamic extremist organization was founded by 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, who is also co-founder of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT).

However in a mother of all twists, Jagjit Kaur said, “I am an independent individual. I am 19 years old. I contracted marriage with one Muhammad Hassaan on August 28, 2019, of my own free will and consent. My Sikh name was Jagjit Kaur and it was mentioned in an FIR as well whereas after the conversion to Islam, I adopted the new name Ayesha.”

This is not the first time that some forcibly converted girl suddenly changed the stance and called conversion- her own will. Previously, two Hindu girls Raveena (13) and Reena (15) were forcibly converted, but the girls later made polar opposite confessions.

Same observation was made by Sirsa:

The confession of ‘conversion on her own will’ is a regular occurrence in Pakistan given the fear of physical violence from conversion mafia. The minority communities like Hindu, Sikh, Christians and even non Sunni Muslims (Shia, Ahmadiya) are not safe in Islamic state of Pakistan. The Sikh community is on the verge of extinction from the Islamic country. According to a Sikh rights campaigner, the number of Sikh people in the country declined from 40,000 in 2002 to 8,000 in 2019.

“This is a fact the Sikh population in Pakistan has been consistently declining,” said Professor Kalyan Singh, a minority rights activist and a teacher at Lahore’s GC College University. “One of the reasons behind this decline is of course forced conversion.”

The recent incident is a stark reminder to the Sikh community, who are enamoured by the Khalistani movement, about how the minorities of Pakistan have, for long, faced ethnic cleansing at the hands of ISI backed fundamentalists in the country. It should be an eye opener for the community that India is their natural home and Sikhs have always been, culturally and historically, a part of India. Pakistan backed Khalistani propaganda is nothing but eyewash for the atrocities committed by the terror country on the community.