Another Christian woman in Pakistan abducted

A 23-year-old Christian woman was abducted this month from her home, but the police was reportedly reluctant to file a First Information Report because she is said to have accepted Islam and was married to one of her Muslim abductors.

"Within this month at least five Christian girls have been abducted and converted to Islam and married with their abductors in this village from where this girl has been abducted and no legal protection for them in such issues," Afzal Masih, a local resident of the Jodh Singh Chak No.13 village, was quoted by Pakistan Christian Post as saying.

According to the report, the abductee, Laveeza Bibi, was taken by two men at midnight on April 14 at gunpoint. The men threatened to kill her father, Sarwar Masih, and mother if they made a commotion. Masih filed a complaint at the local police station, but the authorities said she has already embraced Islam and was wed to a man named Muhammad Talib, said to be one of men who took her by force.

At the request of the local priest, human rights group LEAD is helping Masih with the legal process. The organization, which provides legal assistance to those in need such as in cases of forced marriage and forced conversion to Islam, has already filed a complaint at the DSP Pattoki against the abductors to have criminal proceeding started.

Similar cases have been reported in other parts of Pakistan. According to the International Christian Concern, citing a 2014 study made the Movement for Solidarity and Peace in Pakistan, around 700 Christian girls from 12 to 25 suffer the same fate each year.

One such case is that of a 15-year-old Christian girl named Komal who was abducted in June last year. Sharing her story with the ICC, she said five men intruded into their home, beat and threatened her family, and took her with them. On that night, she was driven to an unknown location where the men took turns raping her.

"Burning my female parts with cigarettes was a routine exercise for them," she said. "Almost for two months they beat me every day for nothing and did not give [me] enough food to eat."

She was subsequently forced to change her religion to Islam and marry one of her abductors, meaning the man had full custody of her as is the right of husbands in Pakistan. Since she was only 15, the documents were apparently forged to make it look like she was 18.

"After almost two months of inhuman treatment and humiliation, they took me to the courthouse and forced me to put my thumb impression on a document that declared me the wife of a Muslim," she narrated.

Her "husband" would continue to abuse her and even acted as her pimp. She spent six months as a captive and was forced to become a prostitute. She had also gotten pregnant.

In February, she managed to escape and go home, but there is still the threat of being forced to go back to her "husband" and/or violence to her and her family.