Aid to the Church in Need: Pakistan: Christian girl raped and murdered

Pakistan: Christian girl raped and murdered - but what is being done?

Posted by Press Release on 4/5/2009, 8:47 am
Board Administrator

ACN News Monday, May 2009 – PAKISTAN
A Christian is girl raped and murdered… but is anything being done to catch the killers?

By John Pontifex

A NINE-YEAR-OLD Christian girl in Pakistan was gang-raped before being killed and dumped in a canal – and outrage is growing amid reports that almost a month later nobody has been arrested.
Nisha Javid was walking close to her home when she suddenly disappeared, prompting her panic-stricken parents to mount a search for her.
Barely two days later, with a police-led search underway, her body was found in a canal not far from the Javids’ home in Essangri village, outside the town of Jaranawala, Faisalabad.
A post mortem revealed Nisha had been gang-raped and had died after repeated blows to the head.
More than three weeks later, police have been accused of inaction and refusing to follow up allegedly compelling evidence identifying the guilty party.
Fr Yaqub Masih, parish priest of Jaranwala, said: “People here are very sad – especially the family.”
He explained that Nisha’s mother is “ill with grief” and that her father is unable to work and is devoting every hour to win justice for his daughter’s death, working with police and lawyers.
Fr Masih underlined the impact of the attacks on other Christians.
He said: “If nothing is done about this, where can our children go to feel safe? Everyone feels very insecure and very afraid.”
The crime took place on 9th April – (Maundy) Thursday in Holy Week – and Christians believe the attack was intended as an insult to their faith.
Fr Masih said: “Our people are very poor and they have no status in society. What can they do to protect themselves?”
He reported that the police have been publicly accused of corruption and failing to intensify their inquiries.
“The police action has been very slow. And that has made the people here feel even more powerless.”
His comments come amid an upsurge of anti-Christian violence and intimidation in Pakistan.
Nisha’s death follows on from a narrowly-averted attack on Christians in Jaranawala, prompted by accusations that a man had allegedly damaged a banner containing words from the Koran, thereby breaking Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws.
Meanwhile, in the southern city of Karachi, four people – including an 11-year-old boy – were injured in attacks on Christians that took place on 22nd April.

Editor’s notes

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.
Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 145 countries throughout the world.
The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 45 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information, please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org