“In April in the area of Kasur alone, five Christian girls were kidnapped and converted to Islam and forced to marry their captors. These girls are denied the legal protection of individual rights,” said Sardar Mushtaq Gill, a lawyer with Legal Evangelical Association Development in Pakistan.
Fides News Agency reported Monday that the latest victim was 23-year-old Laveeza Bibi from the Kasur district in Punjab, who earlier this month was kidnapped by two Muslims who stormed her house armed with guns, kidnapping the girl and threatening her parents.
One of the abductors, identified by the name Muhammad Talib, reportedly forced Bibi to marry him and become a Muslim.
Sarwar Masih, the girl’s father, reportedly went to the police, asking them to register a First Information Report of the crime, but officers had to be persuaded by Gill and a local pastor before finally agreeing to do so.
Gill said the ‘phenomenon continues to have unacceptable proportions,’ with many cases every year of Christian girls being forced into...