An innocent Christian woman caught up in the aftermath of the elopement of her brother with a Muslim woman, has today been set free from prison in Pakistan.
On the 22nd of June a horde of local Muslims threatened to lynch 13 Christians from the same family and burn down the local Christian enclave at Haji Park,
Taj Pura, after it had been discovered a Christian man eloped with a married Muslim woman.
Shagufta Inayat (31 years), had been arrested and incarcerated at the Shad Bagh Police station, for her alleged involvement in the elopement of a Muslim
woman named Sehar with her brother Badal [also known as Bahadur a name used by most media groups]. Sehar, was already married to a Muslim man and is a
mother of two children who she has left behind.
On discovering the elopement of Sehar and Bahadur her husband Muhammad Wasif filed a First Information Report (FIR) against the family of Bahadur who
he alleged had kidnapped his wife. In the FIR no: 560/16 he specifically named Bahadur and his two sisters Shagufta and Samra.
Local Muslims were stirred into action by the mosques in the vicinity and the family of Muhammad Wasif, resulting in a mob close to 500 strong who threatened
to burn alive the remaining family of Bahadur, unless he and Sehar returned.
Yesterday after a campaign by several humanitarian groups including the BPCA – who challenged against the illegal detention of Shagufta – she was finally
released from police custody [June 30th]. More importantly the charges against her and her sister have been dropped in their entirety.
The two sisters of Bahadur have been badly mistreated and BPCA officer Mehwish Bhatti will be visiting them to provide Bible based trauma counselling.
On Friday 14th June 2016, male police constables from the Shad Bagh Police Station broke into Shagufta’s house and arrested her. Shagufta was tortured
by police publicly in the town centre market in an attempt to force from her the whereabouts of her brother and Sehar. Shagufta was slapped and beaten
while local muslims spat at her then threw old vegetables and stones at her. The police had fomented violence upon her by berating her publicly and insulting
her faith and virtue. They then arrested Shagufta who has been incarcerated since that date.
Shagufta’s younger sister, Samra (28 years) was subjected to torture and was stripped in an incident involving Sehar’s husband and three accomplices. Shagufta
has told us that Shad Bagh Police escorted the four men to Samra’s house. When she saw the uniformed police oficers at the door she opened the door. However,
local police officers than moved away and the four men came into her house. Before the men enacted their sordid attack, they expressly told her that they
had been advised by the police to sexually abuse her in order to force the truth out of Bahadar’s family. She was asked to disclose the whereabouts of
Bahadur and Sehar and when she could not, she was brutally slapped and beaten. They called her a Christian dog, spat on her and tortured her stripping
her naked and tried to move her to a room where they intended to gang rape her. She managed to escape to the open roof of her house and jumped to
the roof of her neighbours house. Here she was given protection and some clothes to wear.
Samra alleges the rapists laughed at her while subjecting her to torture. She said: “I am emotionally scarred for life, they have taken away my honour but I did nothing wrong. I fear even leaving my home now I feel very depressed.”
BPCA is intending to lodge a complaint against the police as in compliance with Pakistani law, male officer should not have been involved in her arrest.
Only lady constables are authorized to arrest and detain women due to the large number of rapes in Pakistani prisons. We are also intending to lodge a
complaint about the involvement of police in the attempted rape of Samra.
By law police are not allowed to arrest or hold a female victim overnight at a police station without a civil court judge’s consent. The law requires a
complaint to be made directly to a sessions court, a trial court for heinous offences. After recording the victim’s statement, the sessions court judge
officially lodges a complaint, after which police may then make arrests. This process was totally ignored in the case of Shagufta.
Police are acting threateningly towards all the Christian villagers of Taj Pura. Some officer have allegedly told Shagufta and Samra that they could be
arrested again under false pretence unless the family locate the eloped couple. Local Muslims are extremely agitated they are allegedly regularly hurling
abuse and threats at Christians. They have said they will burn alive all 13 members of Bahdur’s family, for the dishonour conducted on Muslims. Moreover
they are threatening to kidnap Christian girls in the area, rape and forcibly marry them into Islam or lynch them unless the eloped couple return and be
punished.
Wilson Chowdhry, Chairman of the BPCA, said:
“Freedom of Shagufta is not the end of this saga, I fear that a more brutal attack is imminent. Evidently the local police force have their own bias and prejudice and are not overtly willing to help the beleaguered Christians of Taj Pura. An independent force has to be deployed at the location for the safety of the innocent people caught up in a couples love affair.”
He added:
“The actions of local police illustrate the poor rule of law in Pakistan and are a blight on the reputation of the country. The Government has a chance to remedy this by taking action against abusive police officers who have been in breach of their duties, policing protocol and the law. I will be contacting the Pakistani High Commissioner with my concerns and hope that the Government acts responsibly and swiftly. Only firm action against the corrupt police officers can remove the current impunity that has rendered the current police force unfit for purpose.”