Missing Girl Appears in Court, Declares Conversion to Islam
Omer Farooq
Khaleej Times, UAE
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Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (India):
The mystery of a missing girl, K. Pallavi, was solved yesterday as the 21-year-old made a dramatic appearance in the Andhra Pradesh High Court covered in burqa (veil).The girl declared before the division bench that she had converted to Islam willingly without inducements or coercion from any body.
She also denied that she was kidnapped adding that she was hiding as her life was under threat from her parents and other relatives.Pallavi said that as she was a major and should be allowed to go on her own. She also insisted that she should be called by her new name, Sana Fatima.Acting on a complaint from her mother, a division bench of Andhra Pradesh High Court had ordered the police to trace the girl and produce her before the court.
Accompanied by a few other burqa-clad women, Sana appeared before the division bench comprising Chief Justice Bilal Nazki and Justice R Subhash Reddy and told the court that she wanted to give her statement. Member of Parliament from Hyderabad, Asaduddin Owaisi, was also present.Later during an in camera proceeding, the judges — in the presence of the advocate general C.V. Mohan Reddy and counsel for girl's mother Prabhakar Reddy — recorded her statement.
The court then dismissed the complaint of the mother and told the girl that she was free to go.Sana later addressed a news conference at the MIM headquarters Darussalam. She said that she has been studying texts on Islam for the last one and a half years and on the basis of her understanding of the religion, decided to convert.
"This was my own decision. Neither anybody coerced nor induced me to convert. I found spiritual bliss in the religion," she said.
She held her parents and other family members as well as the Langar House area police responsible for the murder of a local youth Quader Ali as he had helped her. "He was an innocent person.
All this talk of my love affair with him or any link with him is false. His only fault was he guided me to meet a religious leader for the formal conversion," she said.The girl had gone missing since July last from her home in Langar House area of Hyderabad.
Oct 25 2005
Omer Farooq
Khaleej Times, UAE
_______________
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (India):
The mystery of a missing girl, K. Pallavi, was solved yesterday as the 21-year-old made a dramatic appearance in the Andhra Pradesh High Court covered in burqa (veil).The girl declared before the division bench that she had converted to Islam willingly without inducements or coercion from any body.
She also denied that she was kidnapped adding that she was hiding as her life was under threat from her parents and other relatives.Pallavi said that as she was a major and should be allowed to go on her own. She also insisted that she should be called by her new name, Sana Fatima.Acting on a complaint from her mother, a division bench of Andhra Pradesh High Court had ordered the police to trace the girl and produce her before the court.
Accompanied by a few other burqa-clad women, Sana appeared before the division bench comprising Chief Justice Bilal Nazki and Justice R Subhash Reddy and told the court that she wanted to give her statement. Member of Parliament from Hyderabad, Asaduddin Owaisi, was also present.Later during an in camera proceeding, the judges — in the presence of the advocate general C.V. Mohan Reddy and counsel for girl's mother Prabhakar Reddy — recorded her statement.
The court then dismissed the complaint of the mother and told the girl that she was free to go.Sana later addressed a news conference at the MIM headquarters Darussalam. She said that she has been studying texts on Islam for the last one and a half years and on the basis of her understanding of the religion, decided to convert.
"This was my own decision. Neither anybody coerced nor induced me to convert. I found spiritual bliss in the religion," she said.
She held her parents and other family members as well as the Langar House area police responsible for the murder of a local youth Quader Ali as he had helped her. "He was an innocent person.
All this talk of my love affair with him or any link with him is false. His only fault was he guided me to meet a religious leader for the formal conversion," she said.The girl had gone missing since July last from her home in Langar House area of Hyderabad.
Oct 25 2005
