Badshahi Mosque, Lahore, Pakistan. (Romero Maia, Inventive Commons)
LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Day by day Worldwide–Morning Star Information) – A Muslim kidnapped and raped a 14-year-old Christian woman in Pakistan this month, in line with her brother, who believes the assault was an act of revenge over a previous dispute.
Sahil George, a 21-year-old member of the Affiliate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Sahiwal, Punjab Province, stated his sister left their dwelling briefly on Dec. 7 to purchase bread from a close-by store when Muslim neighbors stopped her.
“She was approached on the road by Muhammad Bilal Arshad and Muhammad Zohaib, who pressured her at gunpoint to take a seat on their bike and took her to a home,” George instructed Christian Day by day Worldwide-Morning Star Information. “They locked her in a room, the place Zohaib raped her.”
The household grew to become alarmed when the kid didn’t return dwelling for an prolonged interval and started looking out close by streets, he stated.
“In the course of the search, two residents knowledgeable us {that a} woman had been thrown outdoors a home by bike riders and seemed to be in a semi-unconscious situation,” George stated. “After we rushed there, we noticed that it was my sister.”
The household instantly contacted police, who arrived and transported her to a hospital. Medical examination later confirmed that she had been raped, George stated.
Police initially arrested Arshad, Zohaib, and one other particular person recognized as Shamil Arshad, George stated. Bilal Arshad and Shamil Arshad have been later launched after Zohaib claimed sole accountability for the crime, he stated.
George’s father, George Masih, died about 15 years in the past, leaving him as the first breadwinner for his widowed mom, Nasreen Bibi, and his two sisters. A employees at a marriage ornament objects store, George stated the assault adopted a dispute he had with Bilal Arshad a number of months earlier throughout a cock-fighting occasion.
“My buddies and I had a battle with Bilal and his group after they refused to present us the money prize and trophy that we had received in what we consider was a good competitors,” he stated. “We ultimately took the cash and the trophy, and due to that they held a grudge towards me.”
He added that Zohaib and Bilal Arshad had confronted his sister on the road days earlier than the incident and warned her that they might take revenge for what they thought of their humiliation.
“Some persons are making an attempt to strain me to succeed in a settlement with the accused,” George stated. “However how can I compromise on my sister’s honor and her life? In the event that they wished revenge, they need to have taken it from me. As an alternative, they focused my youthful sister, scarring her for all times and inflicting our household immense psychological and emotional struggling.”
Human rights activists say girls and ladies from spiritual minority communities in Pakistan reminiscent of Christians and Hindus face heightened dangers of sexual violence.
“Minority girls in Pakistan are at higher danger of sexual violence and different types of abuse in comparison with the overall feminine inhabitants,” stated Albert Patras, a human rights activist who works with feminine survivors of violence in South Punjab. “This vulnerability stems from overlapping discrimination primarily based on gender, faith, socio-economic standing and caste.”
Regardless of constitutional ensures of equality, minority girls typically face systemic neglect and exclusion from authorized protections and social providers, Patras stated.
“In lots of instances, perpetrators of crimes towards minority girls escape accountability,” he stated. “On this case, one of many main accused, Bilal, has reportedly been launched primarily based on Zohaib’s confession, despite the fact that the kid herself has clearly recognized Bilal as being concerned in her abduction.”
He referred to as on authorities to analyze the case completely in gentle of the sufferer’s assertion and to make sure that all these concerned are held accountable underneath the legislation.
“The police should guarantee justice with out discrimination or strain,” Patras stated.
Pakistan, whose inhabitants is greater than 96 p.c Muslim, ranked eighth on Open Doorways’ 2025 World Watch Checklist of nations the place Christians face essentially the most extreme persecution.
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