8 years on, Muslim man in interfaith marriage converts

AGRA: Eight years after he married a

Hindu woman

, a Muslim man from Aligarh has converted to Hinduism “with help from” a Hindutva outfit.

Qasim Khan

, 28, is now

Karamveer Singh

.


“No one forced me. I took this decision on my own,” he said on Monday. Qasim had met

Anita Kumari

, 24, when his father had leased a house from hers for a construction workshop. The two fell in love and got married in 2012. Anita’s family was not entirely on board and, a year later, the couple organised another wedding ceremony, this time following Hindu rituals. Her family moved to Delhi, the couple stayed on in Aligarh and had two kids —

Kasifa

(7) and Ayaz (4).

Now, less than a month after the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance 2020 came into effect, Qasim has converted to Hinduism.

Qasim said he needs protective cover. “I had sought security from the district administration but they didn’t get back to me. I request the government again, I need protection,” he told TOI. Anita added, “I was never asked to convert or not follow Hindu rituals.” For his own conversion, the “helping hand” came from the local unit of a Hindutva outfit.

Neeraj Bhardwaj, a member of the outfit, who got Qasim converted, told TOI, “They are welcome to the fold of Hindu religion. We did the rituals at Arya Samaj temple on Sunday.” He said Qasim had applied for a legal conversion to the district magistrate on December 15. But after he got no response for five days, the temple took over.