For information about the Orthodox Mission in Pakistan, see here.
For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in Pakistan, see here.
“Christian Rape Victim in Pakistan Pressured to Withdraw Charges,” Morning Star News, March 8, 2024:
LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Police in Pakistan are pressuring a young Christian woman to withdraw charges against two Muslims who raped, blackmailed and tried to forcibly convert her to Islam, sources said.
The 26-year-old woman, a resident of Islamabad whose name is withheld as a rape victim, said Sub-Inspector Muhammad Mehboob was harassing and warning her to drop the charges against Raja Waleed and Shah Hussain, alias Badshah.
Blackmailing her into silence with mobile phone video recordings of the sexual assaults, Waleed and Hussain raped her multiple times over the past four months, she said.
In September Hussain borrowed a large sum of money from the woman’s mother, and the following month he told the young woman to accompany him to the home in Rawalpindi of a friend who would give him the money so he could repay her, she said.
“When we reached the house, Hussain left me in a room on the pretext of making a phone call,” she told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
As soon as Hussain left, his friend Waleed entered the room brandishing an AK-47 rifle, she said.
“He fired a bullet on the wall to scare me and then sexually assaulted me, disregarding my cries for mercy,” she said. “I cannot express the horror I suffered in those moments as my mind and body went completely numb. After assaulting me, Waleed made videos of me with his cell phone and threatened that he would share them on social media if I reported the incident to the police and did not surrender to his demands.”
The nightmare was only beginning, she said, as Waleed continued to blackmail her with videos, compelling her to meet with him repeatedly.
“I was completely helpless and had no choice,” she said. “My father has passed away, and I did not want my widowed mother to suffer the pain of my harrowing fate. Waleed also started forcing me to meet with his friends, threatening to release the videos if I did not comply with his wishes.”
In November she found out that she was pregnant due to the repeated assaults, she said.
“When I told Waleed and Hussain about my condition, they forced me to convert to Islam on gunpoint,” she said. “When I resisted, Waleed attacked me with kicks and punches, resulting in a miscarriage.”
As the ordeal continued, she decided she had to share her plight with her mother.
“My mother broke down when she heard about my suffering, but she told me not to worry,” she said. “She then took me to the police station where I narrated my story, showed evidence of the blackmailing and filed a rape case against Waleed and Hussain. I also appealed to the police to recover the blackmail content from their phones.”
The charges were filed on Feb. 13, but instead of arresting the two suspects, police tipped them off, and they obtained pre-arrest bails, she said….
