Maira Shahbaz, the kidnapped Pakistani Christian girl at the recent center of international attention, has escaped from the home of Mohamad Nakash, the man who, according to the Lahore High Court, is her legitimate husband. After her escape, she went to a police station to give her testimony, in which she also declared that she was filmed while by being raped by the kidnapper.

Maira fled Nakash’s home in Faisalabad, where she had been kept locked in the house, and where sources close to the family say she was forced into prostitution. Now she, her mother and three siblings are on the run.

According to Maira, Nakash has threatened to kill her and her family: “They threatened to murder my whole family. My life was at stake in the hands of the accused and Nakash repeatedly raped me forcefully.”

In her declaration the Catholic girl refuted her alleged conversion from Christianity, stressing that she had been tricked and forced into signing blank documents. She added that the abductor and his accomplices threatened to publish the rape video online if she did not comply with their demands.

Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) received a copy of Maira’s statement to the police from the family’s lawyer, Khalil Tahir Sandhu. She described how she was kidnapped and the atrocious cruelties she suffered in captivity.

In an interview with ACN, Lala Robin Daniel, a friend of Maira’s family, described their life on the run, moving from place to place every few days, adding: “Maira is traumatized. She cannot speak. We want to take her to the doctor, but we are afraid we might be spotted. We are all very frightened, but we place our trust in God.”

The family has demanded Nakash’s arrest for sex crimes involving a minor. Her lawyer, Tahir Sandhu, has applied to the courts both to cancel the marriage and to recognize the violence suffered by Maira to attain the forced conversion.

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Pakistan court orders young Christian girl to return to her Muslim kidnapper