Pakistani held for forcing Hindu girl to marry him

The girl accused Sarwar Solangi of abducting her and subjecting her to rape for months. The Hyderabad circuit of the Sindh High Court Monday remanded him in police custody.

Justice Munib Akhtar passed the order after hearing an application filed by Solangi. Solangi claimed that he was also a Hindu prior to his conversion to Islam.

Solangi's counsel Ghulam Hyder Shah said that the 19-year-old girl of Tandojam had accepted Islam May 20 in Karachi and a certificate to this effect was also issued.

He said the girl solemnised her marriage with Solangi in Malir town, Karachi, May 25.

Her conversion annoyed her parents and on June 21 her relatives forcibly took her away from him when they were visiting a shrine in Hyderabad, the applicant said.

However on Monday, the girl rejected Solangi's claims in court.

She said she had left her house May 18 to wash clothes when Sarwar and two other men kidnapped her and took her to Karachi.

She was kept locked up in a room where Sarwar repeatedly subjected her to rape, she said. She escaped July 30 when Sarwar and his friends left the place to buy wine.u00a0