Pak Sikh expelled for not embracing 'Islam'

ISLAMABAD: An Islamist group in Pakistan has forced a Sikh, who had converted to Islam 29 years ago, to leave his village in Peshawar's Tirah Valley after his house was set on fire and his son kidnapped for not embracing "authentic Islam".

Leaders of Ansar-ul-Islam (AI), a religious group in North West Frontier Province, were accused of expelling the Tirah-based Sikh for converting to the 'Lashkar-e-Islams untrue version of Islam'.

"Qazi Mehboob and Said Akbar came to me and said my first Islam is not genuine. They said it was tableeghi Islam," said Din Muhammad, who had converted to Islam 29 years ago.

Din said the Ansar-ul-Islam leaders forced his family to leave their native village Landakas in Tirah Valley when he refused to accept their demand to revert to Sikhism or embrace the "authentic Islam" that the Ansar-ul-Islam was practising.

He accused the Ansar-ul-Islam activists of kidnapping one of his four sons and forcing him to a pay a ransom of Rs 200,000 for his release. They also set his house on fire a month ago and seized his five kanals of land.

"I am now living in a rented house in Sureyzai village near Peshawar along with my wife, four sons and six daughters, Din said, adding that he was jobless and only his eldest son was working at a poultry farm.

"We are living from hand to mouth, he said, adding that the Sikh community in Tirah Valley had abandoned them when he and his family converted to Islam.

Din denied that he had links with any religious group, particularly the 'Lashkar-e-Islam'.

Din told mediapersons at the Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday that the so-called religious groups in Khyber Agency were bringing a bad name to Islam and the government must take action against them.