On the 28th of July, Gulzar Masih went to pick up his fourteen-year-old daughter, Chashman, from school in Faisalabad. When Masih discovered is daughter was missing, he immediately reported the disappearance to local police.

Days later, Masih received a video along with several documents claiming Chashman had run away and converted to Islam of her own free will. Masih, who drives a rickshaw to support his family, attempted to work with police to have his daughter returned, but did not receive much help.

“The Punjab authorities should play their role in clearing the children who are kidnapped,” human rights activist Robin Daniel told Asia News. “As long as these kidnappings continue undisturbed, all underage girls and their families feel insecure.”

According to a 2014 study by The Movement for Solidarity and Peace Pakistan, an estimated 1,000 women and girls from Pakistan’s Hindu and Christian community are abducted, forcefully married to their captor, and forcibly converted to Islam every year.

The issue of religion is also often injected into cases of sexual assault to place religious minority victims at a disadvantage. Playing upon religious biases, perpetrators know they can cover up and justify their crimes by introducing the element of religion.

Source: persecution.org