AMRITSAR: A section of Sikhs in Pakistan has demanded from its government to send back the Indian woman who had come to the country with Sikh jatha (a group of pilgrims) and married a Lahore resident after embracing Islam.On Friday morning, Sikhs of Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan held an emergency meeting at Gurdwara Bhai Joga Singh , under the aegis of Sikh Sangat Pakistan, which was also joined by local human right activists.They not only demanded deportation of Kiran Bala, now Amna Bibi, to India but also questioned the silence of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) and Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) on the incident, informed Sikh Sangat president Radesh Singh Tony while talking to TOI after the meeting.“We are of view that this woman has brought bad name to the Sikh jatha and if she is allowed to stay back in Pakistan, it could set wrong precedents and encourage others to do the same in the future,” said Radesh.Kiran (31), a resident of Garhshankar town in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, was part of the Indian Sikh jatha led by SGPC that left for Pakistan to celebrate Baisakhi via Attari border on April 12. On April 16, she went to Lahore-based Dar-ul-Ulaoom Naeemia and embraced Islam and was christened Amna Bibi.She married Muhammad Azam and the same day Amna wrote a letter to Pakistan’s ministry of interior seeking to extend her visa, alleging life threats back home. Kiran is a widow and has left her three children including a girl back in India.Radesh said embracing another religion or having a love affair with a person of another country was her personal issue, but she had used the Sikh jatha as a medium to arrive in Pakistan which was highly objectionable to them.Rights activist Mohmmad Wasim said, “We don’t mind her embracing Islam and marrying a Lahore man, but now she should go back to India and come back on relevant visa if she wished. If she is provided a safe haven in Pakistan, it will encourage others to do the same, especially in the era of internet where connectivity makes borders of countries immaterial.”Joginder Singh, a member of Sikh Sangat, Pakistan, said religious groups, be it of Sikhs, Hindus or Muslims, shouldn’t be allowed to come under suspicion with personal act of a woman. “Now every jatha will be seen with suspicion. People will be saying who might convert or marry someone while visiting another country, it has to be nipped in the bud and this woman should be sent back.”Radesh said they were surprised why PSGPC or SGPC were silent on the issue and should clear their stand.

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