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Pakistani Muslim Forces 12-year-old Girl to Convert, Marry Him

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ASSIST News Service (ANS) –
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Saturday, June 6, 2009

Pakistani Muslim Forces 12-year-old Girl to Convert, Marry Him

Police ridicule Christian mother for kidnaping complaint

By Jeremy Reynalds
Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

LAHORE, PAKISTAN
(ANS) – The Christian mother of a 12-year-old girl in Punjab Province who was kidnaped, coerced into converting to Islam and forcibly married to a 37-year-old Muslim hopes to recover her daughter at a court hearing next week.

According to a story by Compass Direct News, the initial reaction of Pakistani law enforcement authorities to Sajida Masih’s complaint – ridiculing her and asserting that there is nothing she can do because her daughter is now a Muslim – does not encourage her hopes of recovering her daughter Huma at the upcoming June 11 hearing.

According to Compass, Masih said that Muhammad Imran abducted Huma at gunpoint on Feb. 23 from Hanif Kot village in Gujranwala district, forcibly converted her and then married her. Imran has since disappeared along with his first wife, three children and new child-bride.

Compass reported that Masih, who worked alongside Imran as a farmhand, said the kidnaping occurred on her son’s wedding day. Masih said that when she sent Huma and the child’s aunt out of their home to see if transportation had arrived for the wedding party, Imran – who had helped in preparing for the ceremony – was waiting and told her to sit on his motorbike.

Huma did not understand and, with her concerned aunt tightly holding her hand, she refused.

Compass reported that Masih’s attorney, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said Imran took out a pistol and told Huma that he would shoot her as well as her parents if she did not obey. He also pointed the weapon at her aunt and said that he would kill her. Huma got onto the bike with him and her family has not seen her since.

According to Compass, Masih immediately ran to the owner of the farm where she and Imran work, Khan Buhadur, who told her to first finish the wedding and then see him in the evening. Masih’s attorney said that when she and relatives went to Buhadur after the ceremony, however, he said only that Imran had fled with his family along with the girl, and that he did not know where they were.

Compass said that suspecting Buhadur was involved in the kidnaping, Masih went to Sadar police station in Gujranwala. Police officers first ridiculed her, the attorney said, and then told her to go back to Buhadur because “only he could do something.” For several days officers and Buhadur shuttled her back and forth between them.

Unable to get police to register the case, Masih submitted a report with the help of a lawyer and took it to the police station, where officers consigned it to the dustbin.

Compass said that three days after the kidnaping, police finally registered a First Information Report (FIR) on Feb. 26 – but changed the age of the kidnapped girl from 12, as her mother reported, to 16. Moreover, Investigating Officer Niaz Khan told Masih that the FIR was useless since she was too poor to hire a lawyer, and that she should try to reach an out-of-court agreement with Buhadur – implying that he knew of the child’s whereabouts.

Compass said the Masih family learned from a friend of Imran, identified only as Javed, that Huma had converted to Islam and had married the fugitive father of three. Javed further said that Imran had told him police would do nothing as he had paid them 50,000 rupees (US$620).

The family subsequently received a court notice, the attorney said, stating that Imran had requested nullification of the FIR on Huma’s abduction, claiming she was an “adult” and had “willfully” converted to Islam and married him.

Compass reported that according to Huma’s birth certificate, issued by St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Gujranwala, she was born on Oct. 22, 1996. The attorney said that Imran had submitted a fake birth certificate stating she was born on Dec. 23, 1990, which would make her 18 years old. The legal marriage age for girls in Pakistan is 16. Only then did Masih obtain the pro bono services of the lawyer who is now handling the case.

Compass reported that a hearing on the case had been scheduled for May 6, but because of a change of judge a new date was set for June 11. Unwilling to wait, the family and their lawyer went with a court bailiff to a factory owned by Buhadur in Gujranwala on May 14, hoping to get help in recovering Huma, but Buhadur did not cooperate.

According to Compass, Buhadur had been demanding that Masih pay him 100,000 rupees (US$1,240) that she had reportedly borrowed from him, but this demand only surfaced after the kidnaping. That, Compass reported, according to the lawyer is an implicit attempt to extort money from her in exchange for information on the whereabouts of her daughter. Buhadur withdrew this pressure on Masih after the visit from the court bailiff and efforts by the attorney.

At a meeting of villagers on May 16 at the Sadar police station, Buhadur said that Imran owed him money and that he would inform officers if he learned anything of his whereabouts.

Compass said another land owner, Karamat Ali Saroyya, subsequently called Masih saying that Huma was in Muridke, near Lahore. However, when Masih and her lawyer set out again and met with Muridke police, they were unable to find her.

Saroyya later demanded that Masih work on his fields for one year in order to get her daughter back.

Compass reported that Masih’s lawyer and other legal representatives said police and officials at the Municipal Corporation’s office, which keeps birth and death records, have been reluctant to help, saying that Huma had converted and that therefore there was no reason that she should be returned to non-Muslim parents.

Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico’s largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org He has a master’s degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is “The Face of Homelessness.” Additional details are available at http://www.HomelessBook.com. Reynalds’ latest book is “We All Need a Little Help.” It was released on October 3 2008. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@comcast.net. Tel: (505) 400-7145.