Manzoor Khan, a young Muslim man was arrested by Rajasthan police for enticing a minor Hindu girl from the Scheduled Caste Meghwal community to elope with him. Khan has been arrested under relevant sections of the SC/ST Act and POCSO Act, after family members of the 16-year-old girl lodged a police complaint.

The incident occurred in Jaisalmer district – the boy was from Lathi village while the minor girl lived in Rattan ke bassi village. The two were found acting suspiciously by police at Lathi railway station, and later apprehended from Jaisalmer station.

The girl’s family has alleged the case to be that of ‘love jihad’ and of forceful religious conversion. They have lodged a case against Manzoor Khan for raping, eloping and for abusing the family members of the girl, under SC/ST Act and POCSO Act.

It is notable that while abduction, forced conversion and marriage of minor Hindu girls from SC/ST communities like Meghwal, Kohli etc is a routine affair in Sindh district of Pakistan, the same phenomenon is being seen with rising frequency across the border in Bharat as well, albeit in the guise of Love Jihad and with some measure of respite for beleaguered Hindu families from Bharat’s law & order machinery.

One stark difference is that while the preying on Hindu girls is at last getting covered in liberal Pakistani news outlets like The Dawn etc., the liberal Hinduphobic mainstream news media in Bharat is still dismissive of such cases and often projects the girl’s family as obstructors of ‘true love’.

RDid you find this article useful? We’re a non-profit. Make a donation and help pay for our journalism.