Christian Family Tortured, Youngest Daughter Abducted and Raped for Refusing to Convert to Islam

Family members comfort a Christian woman mourning the death of a relative, who was killed in a terrorist bomb blast, during a funeral in Lahore, Pakistan, on March 28, 2016. Reuters

Not content yet with beating up an entire Christian family, Islamist radicals in Pakistan even abducted, tortured and raped the family's youngest daughter.

The radicals did all of these wretched acts when the family of 10 refused to give up their faith and convert to Islam, the London-based charity British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA) reported.

The group said the incident happened last month near the city of Kasur in Eastern Pakistan.

Before they were attacked by the militants, the Masih family had already been constantly pressured by local Muslims to convert to Islam, saying they were the only family in the neighbourhood who hadn't embraced Islam.

But the family refused to yield to their neighbours' demands, saying they will never give up their Christian faith. As a result, on Sept. 15 a group of six Muslim men and a Muslim woman attacked the family's home with guns, sticks and metal rods and severely beat the Christian family.

Despite the torture they endured, the family still refused to convert to Islam. This further angered the Islamist radicals who then dragged the family's 17-year-old daughter, Jameela, and 20-year-old son, Arif, and loaded them inside their waiting van as they sped off.

The two were taken to a building, blindfolded and tortured further by the militants. Arif said he heard his sister screaming in pain as she was being gang-raped. The militants said they would only stop if the two of them would agree to convert to Islam. But they still refused.

Arif managed to escape from the militants' lair the following morning.

The family is now living in a safehouse sponsored by BPCA in Pakistan. However, Jameela's fate remains unknown.

"The captured daughter Jameela may well never be found and her malicious kidnapping is causing great anguish and despair," BPCA Chairman Wilson Chowdhry said in a statement. "[For] Muslim despots [to be able to] kidnap Christian girls with such impunity is a blight on Pakistan's international reputation," he added.

The Masih family tried to report the incident to the police. However, the police in Kasur refused to register their case and hear their grievance.

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