Kurukshetra War - Kali Yuga ping...
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Posted on 03/01/2009 1:54:43 AM PST by Cindy
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2009/s09020175.htm
Friday, February 27, 2009
Charges Filed against Pakistani Kidnappers of Young Sisters
Police ignore arrest order, but lawyers hopeful 13-year-old can be returned to parents
By Jeremy Reynalds Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
ISTANBUL (ANS) -- After months of legal deadlock, lawyers in Pakistan said they have new hope they can restore to her family a 13-year-old Christian girl who was kidnaped and forced to marry a Muslim.
According to a story by Compass Direct News, Saba Masih might be returned to her family, the lawyers said, if they can legally maneuver around Pakistani policemen who have stonewalled their attempts to pursue a kidnaping case against the captors. On Feb. 21 a Pakistani judge charged the suspects with kidnaping for the first time in the seven-month legal ordeal.
“The judiciary is one thing, the police are another,” said Arfan Goshe, a lawyer who has taken on the custody case. “I will prove (the three accused men) kidnaped Saba so the judiciary will force the police to arrest them.”
Compass said that on Feb. 21, Judge Mohammed Ilyas issued a First Instance Report (FIR) at a subordinate court in the Punjabi village of Chawk Munda against Amjad Ali, Muhammad Ashraf and Muhammed Arif Bajwa on charges of kidnaping, trespassing, and threatening the Masih family.
Attorney Goshe, a Muslim, said the three kidnappers trespassed onto the property of Yunus Masih, the father of Saba, and threatened to kill his family and burn down his house in late December.
Compass said the decision to file kidnaping charges marks a major shift of momentum in the case. In previous hearings judges have nearly always sided with the kidnappers – based on either dubious evidence or threats from local Islamists – in the Muslims’ legal battle to retain custody of Saba and her 10-year-old sister Aneela. A court ruled the younger daughter could return to her family last September.
Compass reported that the two girls were kidnaped in June 2008 while traveling to visit their uncle in Sarwar Shaheed, northwest of Multan. Saba was married to Ali the next day. Bajwa and Ali registered a case with police on June 28 for custody of the girls based on their alleged conversion to Islam. The court granted them custody in July.
At nearly all the hearings, Compass reported, Muslim groups protested outside the courtroom against lawyers attempting to return Saba to her Christian parents. A traditional interpretation of Islamic law (sharia) does not allow non-Muslim parents to have custody of Muslim children.
Compass said despite the judge’s decision to begin procedures for kidnaping charges, Chawk Munda police have not followed through with the FIR by arresting the three Muslims. The judge has contacted the local police station and ordered officers to register the kidnaping case against the three men, Goshe told Compass. He said he hopes police will file the FIR within the next few days.
“The police are favoring the accused party at this time,” Compass reported he said. “Everybody knows (Saba) was abducted, and that the culprits are trying to threaten minorities everywhere.”
But others are less optimistic the kidnappers will be arrested. Khalid Raheel, Saba’s uncle, said he believes he may have to bribe the police. They would probably demand about 20,000 Pakistani rupees ($250), he said.
Compass said uncooperative police had also blocked the legal team’s efforts to register charges before Saturday’s ruling. As a result, the Christian family’s lawyers filed a private complaint to the subordinate court of Chawk Munda, sidestepping the need for a police investigation to file charges that would be necessary at a normal criminal court.
Compass reported Goshe said the court is finally complying after months of deadlock because the multiple charges against the kidnappers cannot be ignored. Previous court hearings focused on Saba’s alleged conversion to Islam to mitigate the charges of her kidnaping, but the judiciary could not ignore the three suspects’ subsequent crimes of trespassing and attempting to burn down the Masihs’ house, he said.
In January, Compass reported, lawyer Akbar Durrani of the Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) filed an appeal to register kidnaping charges against Ali, the husband of Saba. Durrani had tried to register these charges in December, but Judge Malik Saeed Ijaz refused the case since it was built upon the testimony of Saba’s sister Aneela, whose status as a minor invalidated her testimony.
Compass said instead, the judge ordered Ali to pay a dowry of 100,000 rupees ($1,255) and allow her parents to visit, both required by Pakistani marriage protocol. Saba, however, relinquished her dowry, a prerogative provided by sharia. Her family suspects that she made this decision under threat.
Struggling Family
Compass said that attempts by Saba’s family to contact and visit her have been thwarted by Ali’s Muslim family members, despite a court order for visitation rights.
“We have heard nothing from Saba,” said Raheel, her uncle. “Once we tried to visit her, and (Ali’s family) ran after us and tried to shoot us. But the judges did not do anything.”
The seven months of legal battling have taken their toll on Saba’s family, Compass said. Her parents have eight children but have been unable to send their sons to school due to the ongoing costs of the case, even though CLAAS has undertaken it pro bono.
The girls’ uncle has been trying to maintain the family’s quality of life as they struggle to get Saba back and their legal options dwindle.
“This year I will try my best to help them and send them to a school,” said Raheel.
Aneela continues to adjust to life back with her family, away from captivity. She is preparing to resume her schooling.
Common Crime
Compass reported that kidnaping and rape victims in Pakistan are often Christians, since the influence of sharia on the country’s judicial system means they can be unofficially treated as second-class citizens.
Last month, Compass reported, Muslims allegedly abducted and raped another 13-year-old Christian girl. CLAAS reported that two men kidnaped Ambreen Masih in the industrial city of Sheikupura, located northwest of Lahore. Her attackers threatened to her keep silent, and she was abducted a second time this month before her parents discovered the crime, according to a CLAAS report.
The family filed rape charges against the two kidnappers in Sheikupura, but police officers have not yet taken legal action, according to CLAAS.
Third rate, third world cesspool! Whatever islam touches rots!
This sh!t happens a lot to the Hindu and Sikh communities in Pakistan. That’s how the Muslims reduced what was something like a 10% minority population until the ‘60s after Pakistan was partitioned off, to less than 2% today.
the more i learn about pakistan the more i think it’s a sh!!hole.
Islam is the Faith of Hate and the Cult of Insanity.
Kidnapping children from Christian parents because they are not Muslim is downright evil.
Can you imagine the liberal outcry if Christians kidnapped Muslim children to convert?
I hope this family gets their children back...and its time for the West to start being honest about Islam
The libs in power in this country are clueless.
Kurukshetra War - Kali Yuga ping...
To be added to or removed from this ping list, please FReepmail Sir Francis Dashwood.
Savages! Simple, 7th century savages.
Islam ROBS (tm).
The Religion of Barbaric Savages.
Horrible and typical, thanks for the ping.
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