Where is my daughterIJ I don’t know what happened to her,” said Bindu, mother of Hindu girl Nimisha (alias Fatima) who embraced Islam and reportedly joined the Islamic State (ISIS) in Afghanistan along with her Muslim husband, after submitting a formal complaint to Rekha Sharma, acting chairperson, National Commission for Women, seeking action to track down Nimisha even as Sharma said it was not just forced conversions but organised human trafficking that was happening in Kerala.
Meeting Rekha Sharma at a Government Guest House in Thiruvananthapuram, Bindu, a native of Attukal in the capital city, complained that she had no information about her daughter Nimisha/Fatima and son-in-law Issah, a Muslim youth, for the past 17 months. She also said that there was no information on Umukulsu, the ten-month-old daughter of Issah and Fatima.
“I believe in God. I still believe that God would bring back to me my daughter, her husband and my grandchild,” Bindu told newsmen after meeting the NCW chief. The missing girl’s mother also explained to Rekha Sharma the situation under which Nimisha had disappeared in 2016 and the subsequent developments and handed over the evidences she had with her.
In the complaint, Bindu told the national women’s panel chief that there was no clarity on what could have happened to her daughter after leaving India and that the investigation into her disappearance was not satisfactory. Bindu had earlier said that she had reasons to believe that her daughter’s case could have been one of the so-called love Jehad.
The mother had earlier moved the High Court seeking orders for bringing back her daughter and granddaughter, who were in ISIS captivity in Afghanistan. She has also approached the Supreme Court seeking permission to implead in the case pertaining to the conversion of Kerala Hindu woman Akhila alias Hadia into Islam and her marriage with Muslim youth Shaffin Jahan.
Nimisha was a dentistry student when she had converted to Islam after marrying Issah, originally a Christian named Becson Vincent from Yakkara, Palakkad. The woman and husband were part of the 21-member team from Kasaragod and Palakkad that had mysteriously disappeared from the country in May-June, 2016 and was thought to have joined the ISIS in Afghanistan.
According to Bindu and Issah’s relatives, Nimisha was pregnant when she went missing and had given birth to a baby girl while in Afghanistan. Issah’s brother Yahia (Betsin), who also had joined the ISIS with his wife Mariyam, originally a Christian named Merin Jacob, was reportedly killed in battle in Afghanistan a few months ago.
“I am not a member of any organization but a campaign has been going on for some time to project me as a member of some party,” Bindu said. Relatives of other Keralite ISIS recruits had been cooperating with the investigations in the initial stages but nobody had been showing much interest of late, she added.
Meanwhile, NCW chief Rekha Sharma, who had the other day stirred a hornets’ nest in the State with her statement that forced conversions were rampant in Kerala, said on Wednesday that organised human trafficking was taking place in Kerala. She said she would submit a detailed report to the Union Home Ministry on the Kerala situation.
Sharma, who had arrived in Kerala on Monday, met DGP loknath Behera on Wednesday and handed over to him the 11 petitions she had received on forced conversions. Most of these petitions were submitted by parents of girls who had been converted to Islam under pressure. She said the DGP had assured her that action would be taken on the complaints.
She also informed the State police chief that Akhila alias Hadia, the 25-year-old Hindu woman who had converted to Islam and married a Muslim youth in an alleged case of love Jehad, was not facing any torture at home in Kottayam district where she was presently lodged as per a High Court order. Sharma had visited Akhila/Hadia on Monday.