KARACHI: An 18-year-old Christian girl has rejected the allegations of abduction and forced conversion to Islam in Karachi’s Railway Colony.
Earlier, it emerged that a 13-year-old Christian girl was kidnapped and forced to marry a 44-year-old man who made her convert to Islam.
Arzoo Raja was abducted from her home in Karachi on October 13, and two days later her ‘husband’ produced a marriage certificate saying she was 18 and had converted to Islam.
The case has led to protests in Karachi and Lahore but a Pakistani court has upheld the marriage after her husband claimed she had converted of her own free will.
On a social media website Twitter, Arzoo Raja raja asked for help against the media who have “made her life hell” with these abduction allegations. In the video, she rejected abduction allegations and claim to married her own free will.
Furthermore Arzoo says she is 18 in her sworn affidavit.
A High Court judge agreed with her and accepted her conversion and marriage were of her free will as an adult.
The Nadra certificate being shared about her birth date is a fake. pic.twitter.com/Al0HXnfnNm
— Richard Harris (@HarrisRichard77) October 31, 2020
Earlier, Arzoo’s father Raja said that his daughter had been abducted from the family home in Karachi’s Railway Colony after her parents went to work.
According to the FIR, lodged by the girl’s father, Raja, Arzoo went missing on October 13 after which he approached the police to find her. Later, it transpired that she was in the custody of the suspects. The case was registered under section 364-A (kidnapping or abducting a person under the (age of fourteen) of the PPC at the Frere police station.
Earlier this week, a large number of Christian community members and civil society activists gathered outside the Karachi Press Club to protest against the incident, demanding of the government to make a law against the growing practice targeting religious minority girls.
On Thursday, the suspects moved their post-arrest bail applications before District South’s additional district and sessions judge Faiza Khalil, contending that they were innocent. Their attorney, Hidayat Ali Leghari, argued that the girl had already recorded her statement before the Sindh High Court, stating that she had accepted Islam out of her free will and had married Azhar without any fear or pressure.
