by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - A 16-year-old Christian girl in Okara, Pakistan was repeatedly raped after being abducted earlier this month, in what rights group Open Doors USA said is a “silent epidemic of kidnappings of Christian girls” by Muslim men in Pakistan, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
The young girl in question was kidnapped from close to her college in Okara, and driven to Faisalabad in southwest Lahore, ICC said. Here she was raped several times and left lying unconscious in the street where her mother Grace found her the next morning.
Grace told police that her daughter was supposed to have been picked up from college by her brother, but when he arrived he was told she had already gone, ICC reports. “The unexpected situation made my son worried as this never happened before,” Grace told the police.
A local pastor told ICC that the perpetrator had sexually harassed the girl for months, refusing to take her ‘no’ for an answer. Despite the fact the perpetrator is known to the family, he has not been arrested. “The harrowing story reveals the abuse of Christians in Pakistan and how justice is often elusive for the persecuted,” ICC said in its report.
According to Open Doors USA, “Christians in Pakistan are considered second-class citizens and are discriminated against in every aspect of life … Additionally, a silent epidemic of kidnappings, forced marriages, and forced conversion of Christian girls and women continue to take place in Pakistan.”