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Pakistan: Christian woman abducted, teenager receives death threats


ICN has received several reports from Pakistan this week of attacks on Christians from the Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) an interdenominational organisation working for Christians who are being persecuted because of their faith in Pakistan.

A 24-year-old Pakistani Christian woman was abducted by four people as she walked with her 11-year-old brother on 12 May. Marriam Mushtaq was snatched by four unidentified suspects in Bahar Colony, Lahore.

For the past year she had been studying at an adult education college and was on her way there with her brother Youhan at around 2pm when
white car pulled up next to them. A man with his face came covered got out and dragged Marriam inside the car before it sped off.

Youhan started shouting and called out for help. A few people gathered around and boys on motorbikes started following the car. They followed the car, but it was too fast and even hit a young girl while she was crossing the road.

As a result of that she lost both of her legs. The local boys followed the car until Muslim Town (another town in Lahore) and then the car vanished.

Marriam's family visited the local police station to register a complaint, but the police did not respond to them. Afterwards the family and local Christians staged protest in front of Nawaz Sharif's residence in Model Town. They blocked the road for two hours and only then did the police agree to register an FIR against the unknown abductors.

A team from CLAAS visited Marriam's family who are very distressed. The local people is offering their sympathy and support.

Nasir Saeed, director of CLAAS, said that unfortunately the abduction of Christian and Hindu girls continues to occur and is becoming very common.

"The Government is aware of the situation but sadly not willing to look into the issue or to take necessary measures to stop this ongoing abduction, forced conversion and even forcible marriage by the Muslims. Because of the increase of such cases, Christian families are often scared to send their daughters alone to work, school or college. Such kidnapping and abdication not only affects the victims, but their whole family, whose life gets put on hold."

He added: "Although at this moment it is not clear who the abductors are, but if they are Muslim then it can be even more difficult situation for the family.

"We have seen in the past that once a Christian girl is abducted, she is forcibly converted to Islam and even married to her abductor, leaving the police and courts to pretend they are helpless.

"CLAAS team in Pakistan is in touch with the family and has assured them of all the help and support they may need."

Elsewhere,in a village, a Pakistani Christian boy has gone into hiding after he was accused of blasphemy and received death threats. The teenager, Imram, was accused by workmates of having a film of an anti-Muslim lecture by a Christian pastor on his mobile phone. He denied ever seeing the film, but a group of men surrounded him at work, beat him up and locked him in a room. The boy had a second phone and managed to call members of his Catholic Church for help. They came and persuaded the men to release him. Three days later the workmates ganged up on him again and tried to force a confession from him threatening to kill him. At this point Imram went into hiding.

On April 29, Muslim clerics made announcements on the loudspeaker during Friday prayers, encouraging the Muslim community to impose a social boycott of Christians living in the village. Muslims shopkeepers stopped selling food and other items to local Christians.

Local Muslim businessman Irshad Jhakar announced a $10,000 reward for killing Imran.

On Monday 2 May 2016, members of the mosque committee went to Imran's work place and asked the senior doctor about the whole incident, the doctor told them that no such incident of blasphemy had taken place in the centre. This did not satisfy the committee and they continued to plan an attack.

The boycott against Christians in the village continued for a number of days and the committee sent a few young Muslim men to watch out for Imran in order to capture him again,

According to local news reports, the Muslims have put three conditions before the Christians, in exchange for a pardon.

They have told them to convert to Islam if they want to continue living in the village, leave the village forever, or to hand Imran over so they can burn him alive in front of the church.

Nasir Saeed, Director CLAAS UK, said: "I cannot believe that such things are still happening in this world. Such treatment towards Pakistani Christians is a slap on the face of the Punjab and central government, and to all those who never tire of telling the world that minorities are protected and enjoying equal rights in the country."

He said he didn't believe watching a video was an act of blasphemy, but if it were, "No one has any right to take the law into their own hands" in this way.

"Such conditions from lay people make a mockery of the law. The Government of Pakistan must take this matter seriously, provide protection to the local Christians, and those who are breaking the law should be dealt according to the law."

Read more about CLAAS here: www.claas.org.uk

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