a village near Sheikhupura is holding a 17-year-old Christian girl
hostage because one of her brothers allegedly eloped with a woman from
the Muslim family.
The Muslim parents have threatened
further retaliation against the Christian family if they do not produce
their daughter, whom they have also threatened to publicly shoot dead as
an “honor killing.”
An area clergyman identified only as
Father Emmanuel called the situation “critical,” saying it has pitted
the area’s 1,800 Muslim families against its 70 to 100 Christian
families and could lead to violence.
“It’s always been
like this,” Emmanuel said. “No one objects when a Christian girl is
forcibly taken or dishonored by a Muslim man, but when a Muslim girl
falls in love with a Christian boy it becomes a matter of their honor.”
Abid Masih, a welder at a factory in Sheikhupura,
about 40 kilometers from the Punjab Province capital of Lahore, told
Compass by telephone that the family was asleep in their home in Ghazi
Minara village on May 13 when armed Muslims belonging to
the village’s influential Gujjar family arrived at their doorstep.
“When
I opened the door, the men told me that my younger brother, Sajid, had
eloped with a girl from their family, and they had come to search for
them,” Masih said.
He said he tried to convince them that
the family did not know Sajid’s whereabouts, as he had not been home for
two days, and they began threatening to harm Masih unless his family
found the runaway couple and handed them over.
“By this
time my maternal uncle and cousin had also come out, and together we
tried to tell them that we didn’t even know that Sajid was having an
affair with the girl, so how could we know where they had gone?” Masih
said.
The Muslim woman who allegedly eloped with Sajid was identified as Saleha; both are in their early 20s.
Masih
said that the men then forcibly took him, his younger sister Rakhel,
his uncle Mukhtar Gill and maternal cousin Indryas with them to their
house.
“As soon as we reached their home, they started
beating and cursing us and continued to torture us all night” in an
effort to get them to disclose the couple’s “hideout,” he said.
Masih
said that at daybreak on May 14, the Gujjars freed the three
Christian men but kept Rakhel hostage in their home, saying that she
would be returned only after they found and handed over the couple to
them. Rakhel is in her early 20s.
“We were helpless,” Masih
said. “The Gujjars are very powerful, and we could not convince them to
send Rakhel with us. Since Saturday we have been trying to locate Sajid
but failed.”
The Muslim family has sternly forbid them to
report the abduction of Rakhel to police, warning that they would be
unable to escape the consequences, he said.
On May
16, Masih said, Saleha’s father, Aslam Gujjar, telephoned him and told
him that if the family did not find the couple soon they would also
abduct Rakhel’s 17-year-old sister, Maryam. The next night, the Gujjars
released Rakhel and forcibly took Maryam, he said.
Masih
said the Gujjars have announced that they would shoot Saleha dead in the
village center as an “honor killing” for eloping with the Christian.
“They
have warned us that if we approach the police, they will turn the issue
into a religious matter, and the bloodshed there would make the Gojra
carnage small by comparison,” he said. At least seven Christians were
burned alive by Muslim mobs in Gojra after the spread of a rumor of
blaspheming Islam on Aug. 1, 2009.
Emmanuel, who has long ministered in the area, said he was trying to help reduce tensions.
“We
are trying to talk to some local Muslim leaders to convince the Gujjars
that it was an individual’s action, and they should not vent their
anger at the innocent family, but it seems an uphill task at the
moment,” he said.
Asif Aqeel, director of European Centre
for Law and Justice’s branch office in Pakistan, told Compass that his
organization was in contact with the family and was considering measures
to address the situation.
“We were quite perturbed over
Rakhel’s abduction and have been thinking of ways how to resolve the
situation amicably, but now Maryam’s kidnapping has forced us to rethink
our options,” he said.
Aqeel said the options include
registration of a criminal case over the abductions and enlisting a
court bailiff to recover Maryam from illegal detention, but this could
exacerbate tensions, as the Gujjars are influential and would be
forewarned by police of an impending raid.
“A failed raid
may endanger the lives of the entire family and imperil the security of
other Christians of the area,” he said, adding that family members were
also caught in a dilemma as the Gujjars had threatened retaliation if
they sought legal assistance.
Aqeel said they were trying
to gather mediators from both sides to convince the Gujjars not to hold
the entire Christian family responsible for Sajid’s apparent action.
“This
is perhaps the safest way to avoid bloodshed and rescue the Christian
girl, who is left at the mercy of the angry Muslims who feel they have
been dishonored by a ‘petty’ Christian,” he said.
Cheri Fuller and Cindy Lamb Curry 
Marilyn Hickey 
Charisma Staff