ICC Note:
Christian activists in Pakistan are calling on the government to stop the systematic kidnapping and abuse of Christian children. According to these groups, over 1,000 Christian children have gone missing in the province of Punjab alone. These groups when on to claim that many of these children are Christian girls who are kidnapped, raped, and forced into Islamic marriages. Many human rights groups inside and outside of Pakistan have highlighted this issues in the recent past causing one of Pakistan’s Supreme Court Justice to voice concerns and call for further inquiry.
09/20/2016 Pakistan (Christian Today) – Christian girls are being “systematically” kidnapped and abuse in Pakistan, according to human rights activists, prompting a Supreme Court justice to express alarm.
But as far as the Pakistani police and government are concerned, this is not happening. They are claiming that the more than 1,000 children reported missing last year in just one province alone, in Punjab, actually left their home on their own free will, The Christian Post reports.
In turn, the activists are accusing the authorities of lying and covering up the kidnappings.
According to Haider Ashraf, the deputy inspector general of operations for the police department in Lahore, 90 percent of the 1,134 children reported to have been abducted in 2015 actually left their homes on their own accord after being admonished by their parents. Ashraf further claimed that 929 of the abducted children have returned home and that only about four children remained missing.
However, Pakistani Christian human rights activist Mehwish Bhatti told The Christian Post that Ashraf was not telling the truth.
She said most Christian families are not getting police assistance in finding their missing children. Families who were able to secure the release of their children usually had to pay a “heavy price,” Bhatti said.
Bhatti said in many cases, Christian teenage girls are abducted by Muslims to be raped or forced into Islamic marriage. When the families of these girls go to the police to seek help, they are prevented from filing cases, she said.
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