A Pakistani Christian girl was abducted in Faisalabad by known people with a sexual motif.
On May 20, a 15-year-old Saba was walking with her sister Muqaddas to Madina Town, a neighborhood in Faisalabad (Punjab), where they are both working as domestic servants.
Muhammad Yasir and Muhammad Riaz, along with others, stopped the two sisters around 9 in the morning and pushed Muqaddas away. They then grabbed Saba and threw her into an auto-rickshaw and took her away.
Rubina Nadeem, Saba's mother, claims Saba was kidnapped and is being held captive at an unknown location.
Tariq Iqbal and Amir Daniel, two eyewitnesses who were heading to work, saw the girl's kidnapping while crossing the street.
In her complaint, Saba's mother cited Article 365-B of the Pakistani Penal Code, which says: "Everyone who abducts or kidnaps a woman with the intent of forcing her to marry someone against her will, or knowing that she will be forced or seduced into illicit relations, shall be punished with life imprisonment and fines, or with the intent of forcing or seducing her into illicit relations, or who knows that she will be forced or seduced into illicit relations, shall be punished with life imprisonment, or both."
It has taken the police more than a week to locate the girl after she was kidnapped.
Human Right Activist Simon Aleem believes that Saba is an innocent girl, a victim of injustice that occurs far too often.
Several Christian girls and young women have been abducted; the girls are found with their conversion certificates a few days later when the kidnappers surface.
The girl claims to have accepted Islam voluntarily and was then married to her kidnapper.
Aleem believes the government needs to act immediately against Saba Nadeem's kidnappers. He also wonders how an underage girl kidnapped in front of witnesses can accept Islam and marry the same person who kidnapped her.
In Saba's case, both kidnappers were older than 45, and the same is true for other Christian girls: “How do our underage girls fall in love with older men?” he continues.
"Every time the government or the rich have a problem, the courts are opened even at night only to give justice to the rich - why can't they provide justice to the poor and minorities as well?" asked Faisalabad activist Lala Robin Daniel.
Until concrete action is taken against the criminals, we will stage a sit-in in Faisalabad and stand by their families, he said, adding that it is time for us to speak up against crimes against minorities. - Anbu Selvam
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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