The victim’s father shared that his daughter is suffering from epilepsy and faces mental health challenges.
Image: IANS
In a shocking incident, a 14-year-old Christian girl suffering from epilepsy and mental health challenges was kidnapped by a 41-year-old married Muslim man in Pakistan’s Lahore. The minor was later forcibly converted to Islam and married to the man.
According to Christian Daily International, a daily wage labourer and member of a local Brethren church in Lahore’s Gulbahar Colony, Abbas Masih, has claimed that his daughter, Nisha Bibi, works as a domestic helper at a Muslim household. He shared that she did not return home from work on May 12.
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“When Nisha did not return home from work, we went to her employer’s house, where we were told that she had already left,” Masih told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
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After the family was unable to find her, they contacted the local police, which later lodged a First Information Report (FIR) for abduction after CCTV footage obtained from the employer’s residence showed that Nisha left with an unidentified middle-aged man.
He shared that the family even made efforts to identify the man by sharing the screenshot taken from the CCTV footage among residents in the area where the girl used to work.
“A woman employed in a house opposite my daughter’s workplace immediately recognised the man as her 41-year-old husband, Arshad Habib,” he said.
The woman even informed them that Habib had disappeared the same day along with their two minor children without informing her.
Masih shared that his daughter is suffering from epilepsy and faces mental health challenges, with her health condition making her an easy target.
“We later learned that the accused had already been married three times and has children from those marriages,” he added.
Masih said that police officials have showed the family documents claiming that Nisha converted to Islam on February 15 and married Habib after three days.
“We were shocked to see an alleged conversion certificate and marriage documents presented as proof that my daughter willingly converted and married the accused,” Masih said.
He further stated that the documents appear to have been fabricated to protect Habib from criminal prosecution.
The family’s lawyer, Zunara Patrick, has claimed that Habib maintained several marriages simultaneously. The legal team, said Patrick, found Habib in Rahim Yar Khan district of Pakistan’s Punjab province, where he was allegedly staying with Nisha and two children he had taken from his third wife, IANS reported.
Patrick informed that she has filed a habeas corpus plea on behalf of his third wife to seek recovery of her two children and has nominated Habib as the principal suspect in Nisha’s kidnapping case.
“A statement purportedly submitted before a magistrate in Lahore on March 2 claims that Nisha is 18 years old, converted to Islam voluntarily and married Habib of her own free will,” Patrick said, while rejecting the authenticity of the statement.
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