Daughter Converts to Islam, Mother Fears She May Join ISIS
Mini fears her daughter Aparna could be persuaded to join the Islamic State by a ‘mysterious set of people’.
advertisement
On Wednesday, the Kerala State Human Rights Commission asked the police to look into reports of an alleged forced conversion of aeronautical engineering student Aparna Vijayan, a native of Thiruvananthapuram and submit its report by 29 August.
Based on a complaint filed by her mother Mini Vijayan – a resident of Pangode in the capital city – Chairman Justice JB Koshy ordered the state police to probe into Mini’s claims of her 21-year old daughter being apparently abducted and forced to convert by a ‘mysterious set of people’ hardly a fortnight before her marriage.
Mini feared that her daughter, Aparna would be persuaded to join the Islamic State and wanted the government to save her daughter from the clutches of who she believes are Islamic radicals.
Aparna, who had joined the aeronautical engineering course at a private college run by the Jewel Education Trust in Ernakulam was apparently persuaded by her friends to move into a hostel run by a woman named Hasmin, said Mini.
When Mini went to the hostel on 30 March to help her daughter move back home after completing her course and to prepare for her marriage that was to be held in April, she was supposedly told that no one by the name of Aparna ever resided in the hostel.
It was only later that Mini managed to catch a glimpse of her daughter in CCTV images broadcast by the Theribiyath Islam Sabha Mukthar group based in Kozhikode.
After her parents filed a habeas corpus petition twice, Aparna was produced in the court by one Sumaya on both occasions. The court ruled in Aparna’s favour as she was an adult and chose to go with Sumaya on her own volition.
Mini believes that her daughter now lives at the Sathya Sarani Charitable Trust at Manjeri in Malappuram. The distraught mother pleaded with the authorities to get her daughter transferred to a government-run hostel.
According to Mini, if the authorities do not act promptly, her daughter could end up in the hands of the ISIS.