Lahore: A cleric who allegedly solemnised the wedding of two Pakistani Hindu minor girls, who were reportedly abducted and forcefully converted to Islam, was arrested Sunday, as the teenagers approached a court in Pakistan’s Punjab province seeking protection, according to a media report.
The two girls, Raveena (13) and Reena (15), were allegedly kidnapped by a group of ‘influential’ men from their home in Ghotki district in Sindh on the eve of Holi. Soon after the kidnapping, a video went viral in which a cleric was purportedly shown soleminising the Nikah (marriage) of the two girls, triggering a nationwide outrage.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan also ordered a probe into the issue.
The teenagers approached a court in Bahawalpur in Pakistan’s Punjab province seeking protection.
“The cleric who performed their marriage has been arrested from Khan Pur in Sindh,” it said.
Earlier in the day, a war of words broke out between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Pakistan’s Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry over the reported abduction, forced conversion and underage marriages of the two Hindu teenagers.
The spat started soon after Swaraj sought details from the Indian envoy in Pakistan into the reported abduction of two Hindu teenaged girls.
Swaraj, while tagging a media report about the incident, tweeted that she has asked the Indian High Commissioner in Pakistan to send a report on the matter.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry responded to her tweet, saying it was his country’s ‘internal issue’.
PTI
