At the 55th session of the Human Rights Council, Professor Sajjad Raja, the chairman of the National Equality Party for Jammu and Kashmir Gilgit Baltistan and Ladakh (NEP-JKGBL), brought attention to the abduction of Falak Noor, a minor girl reportedly taken from Pak-occupied Gilgit two months ago.
“Today people of Pakistani occupied Gilgit-Baltistan are protesting on roads hopelessly to recover an Ismaili minority girl Falak Noor who was abducted two months ago from Gilgit city and has been sent to Mansehra, Pakistan but authorities have not even registered a report.” said Sajjad.
In his statement Sajjad raised alarm at rising forced conversions and child marriages in Pakistan. “The abducted girls from the minority religions or ethnicities have converted to Islam and married to men from majority faith and ethnicities.” added Sajjad.
Falak was allegedly abducted two months ago, while en route to a nearby community center for religious education in Sultanabad, Gilgit. Subsequently, a video circulated on social media, garnering attention, where Falak asserted her happiness and claimed to have married Fareed Alam of her own volition. However, inconsistencies in her age arose from a Nikah Nama, indicating she was 16.
A medical certificate from a local clinic in Mansehra indicated her age as 16. However, Falak’s father allegedly presented documents affirming her age as 13, accusing those involved of attempting bribery. He asserted that the marriage was arranged in Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and claimed that his daughter was taken there by the kidnappers.
In Pakistan, instances of forced marriages involving minor girls are increasing. Annually, numerous teenage girls, predominantly from minority communities, become victims of this phenomenon. Pakistani courts have essentially sanctioned offenders by accepting “fraudulent evidence” concerning the victims’ ages.