New Delhi
Police in northern India have arrested 10 men for allegedly compelling women to change their religion after getting married, using a new anti-conversion law popularly called the “Love Jihad” law, officials said on Monday.
Last month, Uttar Pradesh state became the first Indian province to pass a law against forced or fraudulent religious conversions, laying out prison terms for anyone compelling others to convert their faith or luring them into these conversions through marriage.
The anti-conversion law does not name any religion but critics call it Islamophobic for being solely imposed with the objective of preventing “Love Jihad”, which hardline Hindu groups describe as a conspiracy to convert Hindu women to Islam by misleading them with promises of love and marriage.
Officials in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, said the law will help prevent fraudulent religious conversions and was designed to protect young women.
The federal government and the Uttar Pradesh government are both controlled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.— Reuters
