United States-based International Christian Concern (ICC) with Website www.persecution.org said Tahira Salamat, 20, was discovered Wednesday, January 23, in her husband’s home. Police in Punjab have come under pressure to crackdown on militants in Punjab, where earlier this month a man was killed by unknown gunmen after apparently mistaking him for his brother who had been accused of blasphemy against Islam.
"Simon Emmanuel was shot to death on January 9, 2008, after his brother who has been living in the United States came home to visit his family," ICC said, adding it was unclear who was responsible for the attack.
Simon Emmanuel was the brother of Younis Tasadaq, who was imprisoned in 1998 on charges that he had committed blasphemy against Islam, a charge that could carry the death penalty. Under international pressure, Tasadaq was released and fled to the United States in 1999.
The attack took place after he decided to briefly return to Pakistan to visit his ailing mother, ICC said.
KIDNAPPINGS
Other Christians, including Tahira Salamat, have been kidnapped as part of an attempt to pressure churchgoers to convert to Islam and marry according to Islamic traditions, ICC and other human rights groups say.
"Two Muslim men, Abdul Sattar and Muhammad Khalid, reportedly abducted Tahira while she was on her way to the workplace in Khanewal district on September 14, 2007. After kidnapping her, these two men forced her to marry Muhammad Ramazan, a Muslim. In order to be a suitable wife for a Muslim, the two men also made her convert to Islam against her will," ICC told BosNewsLife in a statement.
Her parents "frantically" searched for her "in shelter houses, morgue rooms, and hospitals for over a month, but failed to turn up any leads." Local police did not cooperate with them in searching for the young woman, said ICC, adding that "They only agreed to register" a complaint against the alleged culprits more than two weeks after she was reported missing."
PRESSURE
After pressure from the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), a human rights body of the Catholic Church in Pakistan, a High Court ordered police to locate the woman.
She was "finally found at Muhammad Ramazan’s house on January 23, 2008, and from there police handed her over to her parents." The kidnappers have however not been detained, ICC said. Police officials could not immediately be reached for comments.
A local court still has to make a decision regarding the status of her marriage. "If the court directs Tahira to stay with her Muslim husband, Ramazan, they would be officially endorsing a forced conversion and forced marriage as well."
However is she "is allowed to go back to her Christian parents, there is a threat that she would be killed by radical Muslims." Islam does not allow an individual to leave the Islamic faith, regardless of whether their conversion to Islam was legitimate. Human rights groups have pressured Pakistan to improve the rights of Christians in the country.
