PAKISTAN: Serial rapist and stalker assisted by Sindh government; a Christian nurse living in fear as influential person tries to force her to marry and convert to Islam

August 16, 2013

ISSUES: Violence against women; religious minority groups; intimidation; forced marriage; death threats; impunity

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a young Christian nurse and her family members are facing threats and harassment from a former assistant to a minister of Sindh province, an influential landlord, who is trying to convert her to Islam and marry him. The nurse has been threatened with a disfiguring acid attack, among other things, if she does not marry him. They have also attempted to abduct her from her workplace. She has had to keep moving from hospital to hospital. The Catholic community in Sanghar district is in fear and expecting an attack from Muslim mob as the provincial government and police are providing full protection to the perpetrator. The man has already kidnapped and raped several Hindu girls from nearby villages but, because of his influence on local police and magistrates, he has never been caught. The Karachi police have also filed a case against the nurse and her parents for stealing cash and gold from the house of perpetrator.

CASE NARRATIVE:

Ms. Nazia Masih, 27, a Catholic Christian by faith and a nurse by profession, is hiding from an influential landlord and the police from the Sanghar district. The landlord and perpetrator, Ghulam Mohammad Korai (alias Ghulam Mohammad Bhatti), claims himself to be the assistant to Sharjeel Memon, Provincial Minister for Information, and uses district administration and the police for his own, sometimes criminal purposes. He felt insulted when the nurse refused to marry him and convert to Islam.

He was an assistant to the Minister for four years but last year he was removed from the post. He still introduces himself as an assistant to the Minister and even the provincial administration and police treat him as a high government officer.

Hindu and Christian community members claim that Ghulam is known in the district as someone who has already abducted, raped and forcibly converted local Hindu women to Islam. Those who dared to report him for rape were unable to obtain justice.

Nazia was a resident of Padri jo Goth, Sanghir district, a village for Catholic Christians. She completed her nursing course and joined Chiniot Hospital, Karachi. Ghulam was stalking her during her studies. After completing her studies, she wanted to take a job in Karachi, as her family had always felt insecure in Sanghar. However, Ghulam, while still assistant to the information minister, followed and attacked her at the Chiniot hospital. He was drunk and with his goons. He demanded that she should be handed over to him, claiming that she was his wife, and that he wanted to take her home. The hospital authorities refused to hand her over after seeing the condition of perpetrator. Then he started threatening hospital authorities and Nazia through telephone calls.

Nazia left the job and joined another hospital, National Hospital, at Kalapul in Karachi. Ghulam carried out the same attacks there, and whenever the hospital authorities complained to the police, they were told that he is an influential man. Nazia also had to leave that job. She joined an official government hospital, Liaquat National Hospital, Karachi. On at least one occasion he tried to abduct her from there through his goons. In the meantime, some landlords of the area approached her parents, asking them to marry her to Ghulam, saying that he will convert her to Islam and give her superiority over his first wife. When her parents and siblings rejected the offer, the landlords threatened to abduct her.

Nazia’s parents decided to marry her with a Christian and on the day of engagement, May 27 2013, Ghulam attacked the ceremony with a big contingent of police and claimed that she was his wife. Police wanted to arrest her and her fiancé but the elder Christians and church people intervened and it was decided that her father and brother be arrested until the time Ghulam brought his marriage documents. Ghulam failed to bring papers, saying that all were burned and that there was no evidence, not even a photograph. Nazia also filed a First Information Report (FIR) against Ghulam Mohammad for harassment and death threats but the Sanghar city police station refused to file the FIR against him as he was an assistant to the Minister.

Nazia filed an application in the Sanghar session court and on July 21 the judge favoured her position when, again, Ghulam could not prove his marriage with her. The judge asked the police to provide protection to her and her family, and held that they should not be arrested. But the Frere police, Karachi, issued a warrant of arrest against Nazia on the complaint of perpetrator, who claimed that she was his wife and that she and her sister had stolen money (Pk Rs. seven hundred thousand), along with gold jewelry. She and her lawyer contacted senior police officers and informed them about the case in detail, including the orders of the session court. She also filed an application in the provincial High Court of Sindh for her protection. In the meantime, her lawyer, Dliawar G Bhatti, was also attacked by unknown persons as he was coming out from the High Court building.

The victim, Nazia, and her family is terrified and in hiding, moving from place to place. Ghulam is continuously chasing Nazia with the help of the local administration and police. He remained special assistant to two different ministers in the province.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the following authorities calling them to provide protection to Nazia Masih, a Christian nurse, and her family from the former assistant to the Minister of Information and Minister for Minorities, who is harassing, intimidating and trying to threaten the young Christian into marriage. Please also urge them to take stern action against Ghulam Mohammad and also conduct inquiries into the provincial Minister of Information for patronizing the perpetrator, who harasses girls from religious minority groups.

The AHRC writes a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Question of Religious Minorities groups calling for his intervention into this matter.

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