{"id":35394,"date":"2020-05-20T09:36:45","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T09:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=35394"},"modified":"2020-05-20T09:37:47","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T09:37:47","slug":"christian-girl-14-abducted-during-lockdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/05\/20\/christian-girl-14-abducted-during-lockdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian girl, 14, abducted during lockdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em>Maira forced to wed kidnapper and renounce her faith<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A mother in Pakistan has spoken of her distress after a man struck while the country was in lockdown, abducting the woman\u2019s 14-year-old daughter, forcing her to marry him and abandon her Christian faith.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Faisalabad Magistrates Court ruled in favour of Mohamad Nakash, who claimed that Catholic girl Maira Shahbaz is 19 in spite of evidence being produced to show she is five years younger including a birth certificate, as well as official church and school documents.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Maira\u2019s mother, Nighat, was rushed to hospital in Faisalabad suffering shock after two witnesses, Parvaiz and Nadeem Masih, described how at about 2pm on 28<sup>th<\/sup> April Mr Nakash and two accomplices \u2013 all bearing arms \u2013 bundled the 14-year-old into a car near her home, firing shots into the air as they drove off.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Speaking to Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic charity for persecuted Christians, shortly after being discharged from hospital, Nighat said: \u201cI beg that my daughter be returned to us. I am frightened that I will never see her again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">ACN, which supports people accused of blasphemy in Pakistan providing legal and paralegal aid, also spoke to Maira\u2019s older sister, Saira, 16, who said: \u201cMaira is still a child and has been taken advantage of. She loves singing and I miss her and her singing so much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The family\u2019s lawyer, Khalil Tahir Sandhu, said that Mr Nakash is already married with two children and came across Maira as he lives not far from her home near Madina Town, where he works as a barber.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mr Sandhu said that in court Mr Nakash produced fabricated documents allegedly showing that he and Maira had married last October when she was still 13.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The lawyer, a Catholic, who had for several years been a college room-mate of assassinated Pakistan minority rights campaigner and minister Shahbaz Bhatti, said: \u201cThe people who do this kind of thing to a young child like Maira treat us not as human beings but as if we\u2019re animals.\u201d He said that during the court hearing, on 5<sup>th<\/sup> May, Faisalabad magistrate Kamran Khalid had been swayed by up to 150 men who gathered at the court to support Mr Nakash.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mr Sandhu said he would appeal the decision, taking the case to Lahore High Court and if necessary Pakistan\u2019s Supreme Court, which in October 2018 sensationally overturned the case of Asia Bibi, the Christian woman on death row for blasphemy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">ACN also spoke to Lala Robin Daniel, a human rights activist, friend and neighbour of Maira and her family, who said: \u201cThe Shahbaz family is one of the poorest in Madina Town. What little they earn is from their work as cleaners. \u201cThe father has left them and in our society, this poor Christian family are very vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The family explained that Maira had to leave school early because the family could no longer afford the fees and instead she got a job.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">About 1,000 Christian and Hindu women and girls are abducted every year in Pakistan, according to the Movement for Solidarity and Peace, a human rights organisation in the country.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">ACN has supported the case of another 14-year-old Christian girl, Huma Younus, who, according to family, was abducted from her parents\u2019 home in Karachi last October by a man named Abdul Jabbar.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/donate\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-35305 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Support-button-300x44.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"44\" srcset=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Support-button-300x44.jpg 300w, https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Support-button-580x85.jpg 580w, https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Support-button-600x88.jpg 600w, https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Support-button.jpg 627w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maira forced to wed kidnapper and renounce her faith A mother in Pakistan has spoken of her distress after a man struck while the country was in lockdown, abducting the woman\u2019s 14-year-old daughter, forcing her to marry him and abandon her Christian faith. Faisalabad Magistrates Court ruled in favour of Mohamad Nakash, who claimed that&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35396,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Christian girl, 14, abducted during lockdown - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/05\/20\/christian-girl-14-abducted-during-lockdown\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christian girl, 14, abducted during lockdown - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Maira forced to wed kidnapper and renounce her faith A mother in Pakistan has spoken of her distress after a man struck while the country was in lockdown, abducting the woman\u2019s 14-year-old daughter, forcing her to marry him and abandon her Christian faith. Faisalabad Magistrates Court ruled in favour of Mohamad Nakash, who claimed that...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/05\/20\/christian-girl-14-abducted-during-lockdown\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-20T09:36:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-20T09:37:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Maira...jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"516\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"555\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/05\/20\/christian-girl-14-abducted-during-lockdown\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/05\/20\/christian-girl-14-abducted-during-lockdown\/\",\"name\":\"Christian girl, 14, abducted during lockdown - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/05\/20\/christian-girl-14-abducted-during-lockdown\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/05\/20\/christian-girl-14-abducted-during-lockdown\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Maira...jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-20T09:36:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-20T09:37:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/05\/20\/christian-girl-14-abducted-during-lockdown\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/05\/20\/christian-girl-14-abducted-during-lockdown\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/05\/20\/christian-girl-14-abducted-during-lockdown\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Maira...jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Maira...jpg\",\"width\":516,\"height\":555,\"caption\":\"Maira Shahbaz (14), Catholic girl from Faisalabad. She has been abducted by Mohamad Nakash and two accomplices \u2013 all bearing arms. They bundled the 14-year-old into a car near her home, firing shots into the air as they drove off at about 2pm on 28th April 2020. 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Faisalabad Magistrates Court ruled in favour of Mohamad Nakash, who claimed that...","og_url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/05\/20\/christian-girl-14-abducted-during-lockdown\/","og_site_name":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","article_published_time":"2020-05-20T09:36:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-05-20T09:37:47+00:00","og_image":[{"width":516,"height":555,"url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Maira...jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"ACN Malta Media","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ACN Malta Media","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/05\/20\/christian-girl-14-abducted-during-lockdown\/","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/05\/20\/christian-girl-14-abducted-during-lockdown\/","name":"Christian girl, 14, abducted during lockdown - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/05\/20\/christian-girl-14-abducted-during-lockdown\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/05\/20\/christian-girl-14-abducted-during-lockdown\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Maira...jpg","datePublished":"2020-05-20T09:36:45+00:00","dateModified":"2020-05-20T09:37:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/05\/20\/christian-girl-14-abducted-during-lockdown\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/05\/20\/christian-girl-14-abducted-during-lockdown\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/05\/20\/christian-girl-14-abducted-during-lockdown\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Maira...jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Maira...jpg","width":516,"height":555,"caption":"Maira Shahbaz (14), Catholic girl from Faisalabad. 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