As the government announced a state of emergency across the country on August 5, villagers hosed down vegetation in rural areas threatened by wildfires near Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia
With a sensational about-face, the police registered case no. 74/21 against the Christian woman Tabitha Nazir Gill, according to article 295 C of the Pakistani Penal Code, that is, for “having used derogatory comments pronounced or written, directly or indirectly, which offend the name of Muhammad or the other prophets”. It is one of the articles of the infamous blasphemy law that makes so many victims in Pakistan and that is frequently abused and brought up for personal revenge
We appreciate the government’s renewed commitment to the protection of Pakistan’s religious minorities, especially the protection of those falsely accused and the protection of innocent underage girls trapped in forced conversions and forced marriages. The initiative of the Government Office for Interreligious Harmony will certainly strengthen peace and harmony between people of various religions and will lead people of religious minorities not to live in fear “
According to CSJ, a total of 162 cases of Hindu and Christian women were kidnapped, converted and forcibly married were officially recorded from 2013 to 2020 in the provinces of Punjab and Sindh alone
The police meanwhile arrested the kidnapper Ali Azhar, who had kidnapped the girl on 13 October morning, had forced her to marry and convert to Islam on the same day