Jammu, Jan. 17 -- In a letter addressed to the sub-divisional magistrate, the Zanskar Buddhist Association has sought an anti-conversion law for Ladakh, alleging recurrent incidents of abduction of Buddhist girls in Ladakh. A letter on the issue has also been written to the Union home minister Amit Shah. Copies of the letter have been sent to the Ladakh lieutenant governor Kavinder Gupta and chief secretary Ashish Kundra. "We, the undersigned, are writing this letter with extreme urgency and distress to report the kidnapping, abduction/ wrongful confinement of a Buddhist girl from Zanskar, by an unidentified individual, who has been missing for the past many days," it stated. "We would also like to request the concerned authorities for the enactment of any anti-conversion law or anti-love jihad law in the UT, Ladakh, as doing this will help us maintain the communal harmony of the region. We request the concerned authorities to bring in stringent law against forcible conversion through marriage or allurement. Once this law is put in practice in Ladakh, we believe that all the illegal activities under the Love - Jihad will immediately come to end," it stated further. Emphasizing upon the need of anti-conversion law, the association also drew the attention of the SDM to the special marriage act of 1954 where there is a lawful, secular, and constitutionally protected mechanism for interfaith marriages. "If such marriages were genuinely based on mutual consent and devoid of any religious pressure, they could be solemnised under the said Act without necessitating conversion of either party," it added. As per the last official Census in 2011, Ladakh's total population was 2,74,289 with Shia Muslims constituting around 46% followed by Buddhists, around 39.7% and around 12% Hindus. The Zanskar Budhhist Association has also urged the SDM to trace the girl and restored to her parents. The association also stated that there were strong and reasonable grounds to believe that, in multiple instances, marriages were being preceded or accompanied by religious conversion of Buddhist girls, not by their free, voluntary, and informed consent, but through deception, coercion, inducement, or misrepresentation. Ladakh Buddhist Association president and former minister Chering Dorje Lakrook said, "Anti conversion law is indispensable to maintain communal harmony in sensitive and strategic Ladakh region. Anti conversion law is a long pending demand of the LBA. We should have it in Ladakh. To prove a conspiracy is very difficult but such incidents are recurring and there appears to be a trend. The government should look into it," said Lakrook....