Sikh woman on Pak pilgrimage converts to Islam, marries Lahore man

She has applied for an extension of visa, citing "threats of assassination" to her life in India, before Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad.

Latest News : A Sikh woman pilgrim from Punjab's Hoshiarpur district has reportedly converted to Islam and married a Lahore-based Pakistan national, reports reaching her family in Punjab have indicated.

Kiran Bala, daughter of Manohar Lal, wrote to the Pakistan Foreign Office that her visa should be extended as she married one Mohammad Azam, a resident of Lahore, during a ceremony held at Jamia Naeemia seminary in Lahore on April 16, The Express Tribune reported.

She went to Pakistan on her Indian passport with Pakistan visa valid till April 21. Her old father-in-law, Tarsem Singh, alleged on Thursday that his daughter-in-law could have fallen into the hands of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and may have been forced to convert and remarry there.
Kiran's father-in-law, Tarsem Singh spoke to ANI and said, "My daughter-in-law called and said that she has converted to Islam and got re-married in Pakistan. I want to request the Prime Minister, CM of Punjab to take her out of this situation. I suspect she might have fallen into the hands of ISI."

Around 1,700 Indian pilgrims had gone to Pakistan to visit Sikh shrines, including Panja Sahib Gurdwara near Lahore and Nankana Sahib -- the birth place of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, on the occasion of Baisakhi on April 13.

Kiran Bala, 31, a widow, is the mother of three. She was living with her in-laws at their village house in Garhshankar sub-division of Punjab, around 90 km from Chandigarh.
The children are with their aged grandparents. Their father had passed away in 2013. "I had dropped my daughter-in-law with SGPC officials in Amritsar on April 10 for the pilgrimage in Pakistan. The 'jatha' is expected to return on April 21.

"I cannot believe what has happened. No one has contacted us officially from the SGPC and the foreign ministry. I want my daughter-in-law to be returned safely," Tarsem Singh, a Sikh religious preacher in his village, told the media.

Tarsem Singh alleged that Kiran Bala could be in touch with the Pakistani man (whom she has reportedly married) through social media. He alleged that she was using social media frequently on her mobile phone in the past one month.

The visit of the Indian pilgrims to Pakistan has been mired in controversies in the past one week with Pakistani agencies and officials denying permission to Indian embassy officials there from meeting the visiting delegation members.

Posters of Khalistan, a separate Sikh homeland, have also been put up at the places where the Indian delegation is visiting.

Watch Video: Shoe thrown at former Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif at Lahore madrasa

As Sharif was heading towards rostrum for a speech, a student hurled a shoe at him that hit his shoulder and ear.

International News : A shoe was hurled at Pakistan’s ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif by a religious extremist today during a function at an Islamic seminary in Lahore.

The incident took place a day after religious extremist blackened the face of Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khwaja Asif with ink when he was addressing his party’s worker’s convention in his hometown in Sialkot, some 100-km from Lahore.

Today Sharif was a chief guest at Jamia Naemia seminary, Ghari Shahu Lahore.

As Sharif was heading towards rostrum for a speech, a student hurled a shoe at him that hit his shoulder and ear.

The student also managed to reach in front of Sharif and chanted “Labbaik Ya Rasoolullah” slogan.

The security personnel caught the student and his other accomplice who also chanted “Labbaik Ya Rasoolullah” slogans and gave them sound thrashing.

Later, the two students were handed over to police. Police identified the shoe thrower as Abdul Ghafoor, a former student of the seminary, and his accomplice as Sajid.

The situation became very tense after the incident. Sharif made a brief speech in which he did not mention about the man who threw shoe at him.

The religious parties especially Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan had held Sharif and his party (PML-N) responsible for making an attempt to change a clause related to finality of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) in the Constitution.

In yesterday’s incident, Faiz Rasool, who threw ink at the foreign minister, told the police that he vent out his anger because the PML-N had tried to change the finality of the Prophet in the Constitution.

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