Majid Jahangir

Tribune NEws Service

Srinagar, July 7

Days after a girl from a minority community studying at the Islamic University of Science and Technology, Awantipora, was “stabbed” by unknown motorbike-borne assailants, the J&K Police say they are investigating the relation between the incident and the claims of “forced conversion”, which an internal probe by the university has already dismissed as “joking” by her classmates.

However, even after five days of the stabbing incident, the police are yet to arrest the culprits.

On July 3, the police had registered a case against two unknown masked assailants for stabbing the girl, who was on her way to the university from south Kashmir’s Tral area.

The girl and her family had told the police that a group of students, including a woman, were forcing her to offer prayers during the fasting month of Ramzan and also mentally torturing her for the past one month to “convert”.

The girl, a student of electrical engineering second semester, had already complained to the Vice Chancellor university about the “efforts of her classmates for forced conversion”.

“Last month, my father and I met the VC and apprised him of the matter that some classmates were forcing me to convert. But he did not take any action,” said the girl.

Mushtaq A Siddiqi, Vice Chancellor, admitted that a complaint was lodged by the student.

“Once the issue was brought into my notice, I immediately ordered an internal probe. The family was not ready to file an FIR. The probe committee, however, found that her classmates had told the girl in a lighter vein to cover her head. It was not beyond that. Her father later asked for bus service up to their village and we provided it,” the VC said. He said somebody was “exploiting the situation to create a divide”.

Mohammad Zahid, Superintendent of Police, Awantipore, said no one lodged any complaint on forced conversion.

“After lodging an FIR in the stabbing case on our own, the girl, in her statement, talked about the attempt of forced conversion,” Zahid said.

On Monday morning, the girl had received minor injuries in an stabbing incident at Tral when she was waiting for the bus to the university. She said the assailants attacked her twice before fleeing.

Community members seek arrest of culprits

Jammu: Several Sikh organisations on Saturday staged a protest against the alleged attempt to force a girl from the minority to convert in south Kashmir’s Tral area. They demanded immediate arrest of the culprits who have been identified by the girl and against whom an FIR has been lodged. They raised slogans against the J&K Police for not arresting the accused despite having an FIR lodged against them. Meanwhile, the All-Parties Sikh Coordination Committee asked separatist leaders to play their part in resolving the crisis that had come up following the harassment of the girl. TNS