Christian girl, 12, kidnapped, chained up and forced to convert to Islam
Farah Shaheen, now 13, was rescued by police in December after spending months in her alleged abductor s garden. Her dad says was raped and treated like a slave for months
15:55, 20 JAN 2021
Updated
Farah Shaheen was allegedly subjected to horrifying abuse
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Arzoo case: SHC asks if challan should include rape charges
Her marriage was declared unlawful by the high court SAMAA | Irfan Ul Haque - Posted: Jan 14, 2021 | Last Updated: 3 months ago SAMAA | Irfan Ul Haque Posted: Jan 14, 2021 | Last Updated: 3 months ago
Photo: Online
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The Sindh High Court asked if rape charges should be included in the challan in the Arzoo Raja case.
The court questioned if the prime suspect, Azhar Ali, should be tried on rape charges. The documents show that they both signed nikkah papers. How can it be rape then?
The lawyer of Raja Lal Masih, Arzoo s father, said the high court declared the marriage to be unlawful. If the marriage is illegal, then rape sections can applicable, he said.
Arzoo Raja flanked by police in Karachi, Pakistan, with Ali Azhar on far right. | Sindh government
A court in Pakistan has released on bail a Muslim man who abducted, raped and forced a 13-year-old Christian girl into an Islamic “marriage,” based on his argument that the girl had attained puberty.
Ali Azhar, 44, was released on bail last month as he maintained he had not violated Pakistan’s laws against child marriage and child rape because the Christian girl, Arzoo Raja, had attained puberty, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern reported on Saturday.
If found guilty of rape, Azhar would face life in prison or a death sentence.
Arzoo Raja’s Abductor Released on Bail by Court in Pakistan
01/02/2020 Pakistan (International Christian Concern) – According to Morning Star News, the abductor of Arzoo Raja, a 13-year-old Christian girl taken from her home in Karachi, was released on bail last month. The 44-year-old Muslim man maintains he has not violated Pakistan’s laws against child marriage and child rape because Arzoo has attained puberty.
On October 13, Arzoo was allegedly abducted from her family home in Karachi by Ali Azhar, her Muslim neighbor. Arzoo’s parents reported the incident to local police and were informed two days later that their daughter had converted to Islam and married Azhar.
Human rights in 2020
January 1, 2021
We continued to feel intense suffocation in Pakistan throughout 2020. The state of human rights, which has consistently remained morbid for the past few years, definitely did not improve this past year either. State repression, crackdown on dissent, enforced disappearances, false police cases against journalists, arbitrary detentions of rights defenders, attacks on religious minorities, violation of labor laws and violence against women continued.
The government was so fixated on the status of religious minorities in India, France and other parts of Europe, that it completely failed to think of religious minorities in Pakistan, who continued to suffer due to the existing discrimination in law, institutions and society.