April 6, 2013

Muslims in Pakistan Torturing Christian Women and Raping Christian Girls


Pakistan Christian Women
LAHORE, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)–  Christian relief workers rushed to a volatile district in Pakistan’s Punjab  province Saturday, February 9, after security forces and Muslim hardliners  allegedly abused Christian women and raped at least one Christian  girl.
“Yesterday some Muslims and some [undercover] police men raided  Kaila Masih’s house” in the town of Pattoki [where they] “beat and tortured  Christian women Zareena Bibi,Hameedan Bibi and Sharifan Bibi,” said the Legal  Evangelical Association Development (LEAD), an advocacy and aid group.
It  was the second such incident in Punjab’s Kasur District within about two weeks,  according to LEAD investigators. On January 25 a 15-year-old Christian girl,  Fouzia Bibi, was raped by two influential Muslim men in the district’s village  of Roday, LEAD Chief Sardar Mushtaq Gill told BosNewsLife.
Gill said he  met a local pastor and victims and helped to register a criminal case against  the alleged attackers of the women, including “police officials and other  Muslims.”
INDEPENDENT POLICE?
LEAD also demands  that the rape case be moved to more independent police in Pattoki amid concerns  that authorities are reluctant to investigate the crime because of pressure from  influential Muslims in the region.
Though police “arrested” one suspect,  “he was not yet sent to jail”, complained LEAD investigators.
Another  alleged rapist “is free and making threats to Christians of the area,” LEAD  said, adding that both men should be jailed.
Local Pastor Saleem Gill  said in published remarks that he wasn’t surprised about the slow police  investigation. “Our people are poor that’s why they are treated like this,” he  reportedly said.
MORE ATTACKS
These are no  isolated incidents.
Church groups say minority Christians have been  targeted in several areas of Pakistan in attacks fueled by Islamic  extremism.
LEAD said however that it would continue to work “with  children,families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice”.
“As  followers of Jesus, we are motivated by God’s grace and love to serve all people  regardless of race,religion gender or ethnicity,” the group added.

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