Two Hindu Girls Held in Safe House as Tando Allahyar Age Dispute Goes to Court Again
Report Ali Imran Chattha
TANDO ALLAHYAR , Lahore Two Hindu girls at the centre of a contested conversion and marriage case in Sindh's Ibrahim Colony remain in a government safe house, pending a medical age-determination report that both sides say will be central to the court's next move.
The girls, identified by their families' legal team as Sita alias Tanzina and Rupai alias Dua, were allegedly abducted, converted and married while still minors, according to the families and their lawyers. The families say the marriages contravene the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act.
Following the families' complaint, the SSP Tando Allahyar took notice and directed police to proceed according to law, the legal team said. An FIR was registered under Sections 3 and 4 of the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act, along with other relevant provisions, and police subsequently recovered both girls and arrested the men allegedly involved.
When the girls were produced in court, the families' lawyers presented Birth Registration Certificates that, they say, establish both girls as minors. This conflicted with the girls' statements recorded under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, in which they reportedly described themselves as adults and said they wished to remain with the men they identified as their husbands.
Faced with the contradiction, the court ordered a medical age-determination, or ossification, test and directed that the girls be kept at a safe house, not handed over to either side, pending the outcome.
At the most recent hearing, the girls again told the court they wished to return to their parents, according to the legal team, who asked for their immediate release to the families. The court declined to do so while the medical report remains pending, and the safe house arrangement continues. The matter has been listed for further hearing on 9 September 2026.
The legal team which includes Advocate Vinod Jaipal and Advocate Vikram Rathore, according to the families said its objective is to ensure the girls' rights and safety are protected and that anyone found to have broken the law is held accountable.
Rights activist calls for transparency
Chaman Lal, human rights and minorities rights activist, expressed serious concern over the continued placement of the girls in a safe house and called for complete transparency in the process.
"These are two very young girls, and if their age is ultimately established to be below 18, their vulnerability must be treated as a central issue throughout these proceedings," he said. "If they have told the court that they want to return to their parents, that statement must be properly recorded, independently assessed and protected from any form of pressure, influence, intimidation or manipulation."
He said a safe house should exist to protect a vulnerable person, not to create conditions in which either side could shape her statement, and pointed to previous controversial cases including that of Rinkle Kumari as reason for particular caution, while stressing he was not equating the two cases or presenting past allegations as established fact.
Lal called for the child-marriage law to be applied "without discrimination" if the girls are found to have been minors, and said accountability should extend beyond the alleged husbands to anyone including a nikahkhwan or registrar found to have knowingly facilitated an unlawful child marriage. He also urged an independent investigation into any allegations of abduction or coercion, saying the question should be resolved by evidence rather than assumption on either side.
"When minority parents come forward and ask the state to protect their children, they should not have to face humiliation, intimidation or unnecessary harassment," he said. "Our demand is not against any religion or community. It is for equal protection under the law."
The central questions before the court remain unresolved: the girls' actual ages, whether the marriages took place while they were legally minors, the circumstances of the alleged conversions, whether any coercion occurred, and whether the girls' statements reflect their free will.
This report is based on information provided by the families' legal team and interviews conducted for this article; the allegations have not been independently confirmed by the court, and the medical age-determination report remains pending.