By Mark Ellis —
Huma Younus, 15, the Pakistani girl abducted in 2019 and forced to ‘convert’ to Islam is now pregnant following rape.
“Huma has telephoned her parents, telling them that she has now become pregnant as a result of the sexual violence she has been subjected to,” Tabassum Yousaf, the lawyer representing the parents, told ACN International.
The teenager is being held against her will. “Asked by her father if she could leave her abductor’s house and return to her parents home, she told him that she is not allowed to leave the house and that her life has become still more difficult, since she is now imprisoned within the walls of one room,” Ms. Yousaf stated.
The girl’s Muslim abductor, Abdul Jabbar, is well-connected to Pakistan’s military. His brother, Mukhtiar, is a member of the Rangers, an elite branch of the security forces.
“This man (Mukhtiar) has contacted Huma’s parents via video telephone calls and threatened them directly, showing them his weapons and telling them he would kill them if ever they should come looking for their daughter. This same man, Mukhtiar, has added in audio messages that even if all the Christians should band together to bring Huma back, he would kill both her parents and anyone who tried to help them.”
A judge in Karachi closed the case, stating there was a lack of evidence. The parents appealed to the same judge to re-examine the documentary evidence, and the judge contacted the public records authority to obtain the girl’s birth certificate, according to ACN.
The lawyer for the girl’s family previously presented two documents that prove she is underage – a sworn statement by her school and her baptismal certificate from Saint James Church in Karachi.
Both documents confirm Huma’s date of birth in 2005.
The High Court of Sindh is closed because of the coronavirus pandemic and may not open until August at the earliest.
The lawyer representing Huma’s abductor is employing legal maneuvers to stall for time, the family’s lawyer said, because in three years the girl will be 18 and it is likely the case will then be set aside.
The family’s lawyer told ACN there may be as many as 2000 similar cases per year, whether reported or not. “The court has delayed and continues to delay justice on behalf of Huma solely because she is an underage Christian girl. If a similar case were to happen in regard to an underage Muslim girl, all the authorities would act immediately.
“As a lawyer I am certain that the president of the Pakistani Supreme Court could grant justice to the parents of the girl and to Huma herself. However, at every other lower level of the judicial system justice for the minorities will not be possible,” she said.
The lawyer representing Huma’s abductor is employing legal maneuvers to stall for time, the family’s lawyer said, because in three years the girl will be 18 and it is likely the case will then be set aside.
The family’s lawyer told ACN there may be as many as 2000 similar cases per year, whether reported or not. “The court has delayed and continues to delay justice on behalf of Huma solely because she is an underage Christian girl. If a similar case were to happen in regard to an underage Muslim girl, all the authorities would act immediately.
“As a lawyer I am certain that the president of the Pakistani Supreme Court could grant justice to the parents of the girl and to Huma herself. However, at every other lower level of the judicial system justice for the minorities will not be possible,” she said.
