The Sindh High Court (SHC) orders the recovery of a teenage Christian girl who was abducted.
Islamabad, Pakistan: On Monday Shireen Mazari, Minister for Human rights announced that the SHC has ordered the police to recover a 13-year-old teenage Christian girl and shift her to a shelter home.
The minor girl was abducted than allegedly being forcibly converted to and wed off to a Muslim man.
Shireen Mazari tweeted that the judge has ordered the police and respective agencies to bring back the girl and to shift her to a shelter home. The next hearing of the case would on 5 Nov, Thursday.
She also said that an intervener will be filed on her behalf.
Lawyer and activist Jibran Nasir who was in the legal team fighting the case on behalf of Arzoos parents tweeted that SHC has ordered that the girl should be made present at the next hearing of the case that is on Thursday 5 November.
In the meantime, the SHC has ordered to determine the age of the girl through a medical test.
He also commented that SHC noted that the things to be determined in this cause are the girl’s age, as if she forcefully converted, and whether their marriage is legal.
He said that he trusted the government of Sindh and the police that they will use their best resources to recover Arzoo.
Human rights activists sparked protests after the news of the alleged abduction of 13-year-old girl Arzoo and her forced conversion and marriage to a Muslim man.
The girl’s father stated that on 13 October be received a call from his relative that Arzoo was missing, when I reached home and contacted the neighbors but Arzoo could not be found.
The father said that he lodged an FIR against an unknown person of abduction in Frere police station.
The family said that Arzoo’s abductor husband was their neighbor who lived in a house opposite theirs with his family and is at least 45 years older.
The family also disclosed that the girl’s abductor had made fake papers to prove that she is 18 years old.
Jibran Nasir had contented that girl was of 13 years of age, hence the provisions of the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act had also been imposed in the case by the investigating agency.
He had asserted that the relevant documents concerning the girl’s age had already been given by the complainant to the investigating officer and the documents were demonstrating that the girl was 13.
Nasir argued that any longer stay with the abductor of the girl would commence to an offense that is punishable under punishment of rape under Section of 376.
He stated that the complaint isn’t even asking for custody, they just want her to be sent to the shelter house for the DNA and other medical examinations, so she doesn’t have to live with her abductor husband.
