Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kasur (Agenzia Fides) - An eighteen year old Christian of Kasur district, Punjab Pakistan, was kidnapped by a Muslim man with his accomplices while she was alone in the house. The parents have filed a complaint against the kidnappers. The family contacted Christian lawyer Sardar Mushtaq Gill, who agreed to follow the case and to provide free legal assistance.
"Given the experience of a number of cases like this, I can say that often the kidnappers take Christian girls with the aim of forced conversion to Islam and marriage" explains Sardar Mushtaq Gill to Fides.
"It is common for women of religious minorities to be kidnapped and the authors of such kidnappings enjoy impunity, because there is no legislation on forced conversion" adds the lawyer, who leads the NGO Lead (Legal Evangelical Association Development). "With our organization Lead we are trying to point out the problem of forced conversion to the authorities, supporting good legislation concerning forced conversion" adds Gill. According to data of NGOs, there are about a thousand girls of Christian and Hindu religious minorities who are kidnapped every year in Pakistan. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 11/01/2016)
ASIA/INDIA - Bishops at the end of the assembly: Progress must be accompanied by unity
ASIA/PAKISTAN - Forced religious conversion: may the government accept the appeal submitted to the UN
ASIA/INDIA - "No" to religious polarization on the eve of the elections: Catholic religious and lay people reject the film on "love jihad"
ASIA/MALAYSIA - The feast at the end of Ramadan lived "in the authentic spirit of Easter, to celebrate a dawn of peace and fraternity"
ASIA/IRAQ - Abolition of the quota of seats reserved for minorities in the Autonomous region of Kurdistan. Christian parties appeal to President Abdul Latif Rashid