ISLAMABAD (AP) - A Pakistani court is allowing two teenage sisters from the minority Hindu community to live with their Muslim husbands after a government probe concluded they’re both adults and hadn’t been forced to convert and marry the men.
Thursday’s decision says medical checks found the girls, from southern Sindh province, to be 18 and 19 years old. It says they converted and married of their own free will.
The girls’ parents, who were in the court for the decision, expressed shock at the ruling and said they’d speak later. Earlier, they had said their daughters are underage and were abducted and forced to convert.
Last month, the court placed the girls and their husbands in separate protective shelters.
Underage marriage and forced conversions are controversial issues in this predominantly Muslim country.
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