Finally, a missing Christian teenager who was allegedly forced to convert to Islam and marry a 44-year-old Muslim man was rescued by Pakistani police.
Police success to free the 13-year-old and arrest the man three weeks after she disappeared.
Police took the girl to a women’s shelter in Karachi where she will stay until a court hearing on Thursday, said Jibran Nasir, her parent’s lawyer.
The man, a neighbor of the family, was due to appear in court on Wednesday.
Nasir said he hoped the girl’s school and government records would be enough evidence to prove her age and “for the court to determine that she was a minor”.
Before, Sindh’s High Court accepted statements from the girl that she was 18 and had willingly converted to Islam and wed. But, it sparking protests in Karachi by Christian groups and rights campaigners.
The girl’s mother Rita Raja said at Karachi’s Holy Trinity Cathedral, where the family has been seeking refuge since her Oct 13 disappearance said that, “My husband went to the police and reported her missing. Two days later the police put a marriage certificate in my husband’s hand stating she had married,” Raja said.
Campaigners say forced conversion and marriage of girls and women from minority religions, including Hindus and Christians, is a growing problem in Muslim-majority Pakistan, with those from poor families and low castes largely targeted.
