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The father of a Pakistani girl who was allegedly kidnapped, raped and forced to marry a middle-aged man who kept her chained up for five months has slammed the country’s authorities for doing nothing to save his daughter.
Farah Shaheen was just 12 years old when she was abducted last June by a man who ran the business below her family’s home in Faisalabad, Pakistan’s third-most populous city.
Her brother, Afzaal Masih told Asia News International he and their uncle, Kashif Masih, heard his sister crying on June 25 and raced to help, but they were too late.
The pair saw Farah being dragged off by Muhammad Zahid, the business owner, and another man, Khizr Ahmed Ali (Hayat), into a car.
When Farah’s father, Asif Masih, begged authorities to help, he said they refused.
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After being kidnapped, Farah’s family said she was forced to renounce her Christian faith and convert to Islam, before Mr Ahmed, believed to be in his early 40s, “married” her.
In a statement to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Mr Masih said his daughter was chained up and forced to work all day “as a slave”, damaging her hands and feet in the process.
“Farah has told me she was treated like a slave. She was forced to work all day, cleaning filth in a cattle yard,” he said, adding she was attached to a chain “24-7”.
“She was sexually assaulted by her abductor and raped multiple times by (his) landlords.”
Mr Masih said police insisted that his daughter had gone with Mr Zahid and Mr Ahmed willingly, adding a medical report – commissioned by the courts assessing the legitimacy of her marriage – claimed Farah was between the ages of 16 and 17, not 12.
“The findings of this medical report we, as a family, dismiss as an utter fabrication, a travesty of justice and an insult to the independence of the medical profession,” Mr Masih said.
“It is an outright lie.”
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Farah, badly injured and traumatised, was finally freed and brought before a court last month, when growing attention on the case forced police to act.
The 13-year-old has now been placed in a women’s refuge, though the family want to bring her home.
“It is urgent that she returns to us for the good of her mental health,” Mr Masih said.
“Farah needs psychological help. She was already vulnerable as she lost her mother – my wife – five years ago.
“Farah has serious symptoms of mental distress … She speaks in broken sentences and her powers of reason and decision making are seriously impaired.”
London’s Timesnewspaper reports that police are no longer investigating, telling the publication Farah agreed to the marriage. A parliamentary committee is now looking into the matter.
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