Author: Our Correspondent
Publication: Dawn
Date: February 20, 2003
URL: http://www.dawn.com/2003/02/20/local21.htm
The parents of a Sikh girl who has
been held by a tribesman for the last 40 days in the remote Tirah Valley
of Khyber Agency and is said to have embraced Islam have given up all hopes
for the recovery of their daughter.
"I have left the matter to divine
justice," Kirpar Singh, the uncle of Harvinder Kaur, whose Islamic name
is Amina, told Dawn on Wednesday, adding that he had done everything in
his power to retrieve the girl "but the world belongs to the powerful".
The kidnappers, Mr Singh alleged,
had refused to produce the girl either before a Jirga or the political
administration of the agency.
Harvinder Kaur's family claims she
is only six years' old, while her present custodians, a Malikdinkhel family
headed by Nasir Khan, say she is 12 years.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
has constituted a fact-finding committee to visit Tirah Valley and ascertain
the position about the alleged abduction of Harvinder Kaur.
The coordinator of the HRCP, NWFP
chapter Mohammad Tariq said that the commission cannot comment on the issue,
unless it received a final report of the committee.
Dr Sahib Singh, member of the Peshawar
City District Council, said that they had suggested to the government that
the girl should be produced before media and the agency administration.
"We believe that she (Kaur) is six
years' old and how can a minor decide about religion,"Dr Singh said.
He alleged that when Kaur's family
refused to pay ransom to the captors' family, they declared that the girl
had converted to Islam.
The elders of Sikh community said
that governor NWFP Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah had assured them that thepolitical
authorities would recover the girl, otherwise the government would take
action against the tribesmen.
