Sikh girl in Pakistan's Nankana Sahib marries Muslim boyfriend; tension between communities rise

New Delhi: Furor in Pakistan's minority Sikh community rose once again after a young Sikh girl married a Muslim boy and embraced Islam. The incident happened in Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of the first Sikh guru, Guru Nanak Dev. The location in the past has reported such instances. The development has caused tension between the two local communities.

Sources in Nankana Sahib informed Zee Media that teenage Sikh girl Rajmeet Kaur was in a relationship with Zunaid, a teenage boy who lived in her neighborhood.

“On December 7 both of them eloped to a nearby city Jaranwala in Faisalabad district where Rajmeet embraced Islam in a mosque and was rechristened as Zannat Bibi and then she married Zunaid,” said sources.

They further informed that fearing her parents may forcibly take her away, Zannat Bibi moved an application in court seeking security.

Rajmeet's father Ranjit Singh has sought the help of community members who took up the issue with the parents of Zunaid and local Muslim elders but nothing concrete happened to defuse the situation.

Anticipating the issue taking a communal color and outpouring of religious emotions, the administration of both Nankana Sahib and Faisalabad intervened and took the couple in their ‘protection’.

Sources informed that they also called their parents to strike a truce between them.

“Girl is adamant on going with her husband but her parents are not ready so the administration has decided to send her to Darul Uloom in Lahore. But this was objected to by both the girl and her parents so she may not meet the fate of Jagjit Kaur who had to spend a considerable time in Darul U Amaan before being sent with her husband,” said sources.

In the past, Jagjit Kaur alias Ayesha Bibi’s case had grabbed headlines when she embraced Islam and married a Muslim boy Mohammad Hassan leading to acrimony between two communities to an extent that the local Muslim mob even attacked Gurdwara Nankana Sahib and threatened to change the name of Nankana Sahib to Ghulam-e-Mustafa.