Christian family is forced to flee and hide after attempted kidnapping and rape
Pastor Aslam Masih's teenage daughter was walking home from school in Punjab Province, when a Muslim man blocked her way on a motorbike and forced her on it on the 31st October. She managed to escape and ran home.
The young girl had already endured sexual violence from the Muslim perpetrator in September.
Pastor Masih was shocked when she revealed the traumatic incident: “She couldn’t bear the agony and trauma any longer and broke down into tears. She told us that Suleman Azhar and his friends bundled her into a car when she was returning home from school and took her to a house where Suleman raped her. She told us that Suleman had been harassing her for a long time to convert to Islam and marry her. When I confronted Suleman, he threatened me, saying I should do whatever I could to protect my daughter. I did not know then that he had already assaulted her once.”
Pastor Masih filed a report at the local police station on the 2nd November, but authorities did not take any action against the rapist. The disappointed and frustrated father sought legal representation. He also moved his family to a relative’s home in Lahore, but this action only infuriated Suleman. He raided their house, damaged the property and fired several shots in the air.
Pastor Masih’s daughter submitted a statement against Suleman in court. She requested a thorough medical inspection and added rape charges to the FIR. According to her lawyer, the case should not have been registered under Section 354 of the Pakistan Penal Code – using criminal force against a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty, which carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison. He argues that this should have been registered under Section 375 – consensual or forced sex with a girl under the age of 16, which is punishable with death or imprisonment for 10 to 25 years.
Aslam Pervez Sahotra, chairman of the Pakistan Masiha Millat Party, condemned the violence and voiced his concerns about Pakistani Christian girls and women: “We condemn the assault on our daughter as well as the threats being employed to force her to convert to Islam and marry her rapist. The police’s refusal to act against the accused has exacerbated the family’s ordeal, and they are forced to live in hiding away from their home. Our daughters, our community, are living in fear, and the government must show that it cares for them by ensuring speedy justice and punishment to the accused.”
Source: https://morningstarnews.org
