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 “
News of the granting of bail to the main defendant Ali Azhar and to the co-defendants saddens and wounds the religious minorities of Pakistan
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 International Day of Human Rights, which is celebrated in the world on December 10, will be “Black Day for Human Rights” across Pakistan to protest against the increasing number of violence and violations of the inalienable rights of Christians and other religious minorities as well as vulnerable and defenseless people in Pakistan
As reported to Fides by local sources, the case, which occurred in the large metropolis of Karachi, concerns, in particular, the Catholic community of Saint Anthony parish. Arzoo’s family lives in “Quarter 8 City”, of the Railway Colony, in the western part of the city of Karachi
The widow reports that, in these days, her family members have been again threatened and attacked. And she says: “I am powerless and seeking justice, but I also think: what justice will I get? Nobody can give my husband back. My mother and brother are still recovering from their wounds. They had left the house to try to help Nadeem and one of the bullets hit my mother in the shoulder. My children and I have lived in fear since that day”
Transported to the hospital of Lahore, capital of Punjab, died on February 28, three days after the attack in the village of Baguyana, in the district of Kasur, in Punjab. Fr. Qaisar continues: “It is sad to know that a person is killed for having washed himself at a well, on charges of having polluted the water in the well. Saleem was washing himself after working in the agricultural fields. It is urgent to change this mentality: we must treat everyone as human beings, but many people are full of hatred towards non-Muslims. Now another human being has been killed”
The poverty-stricken existence that Pakistani Christians largely lead leaves young women in the community particularly vulnerable to predatory marriage scams..