Pakistan

Pakistani police ‘refusing to help’ abducted Christian girl

With update from China

Pakistan flag
Sabah Masih

A 15-year-old Christian girl in Faisalabad, Pakistan, is reported to have been abducted, forced into marriage and converted to Islam.

However, it is claimed that police are refusing to help the family.

Nadeem Masih, a sanitation worker at a textile factory, told Morning Star News (MSN) that his daughter, Saba Masih (pictured), was abducted on May 20 from the Madina Town area of Faisalabad when she and her older sister were on their way to work.
 
He said that their 45-year-old neighbour had forcibly taken Saba away.
 
The family called police soon after Masih’s older daughter informed them of Saba’s abduction, but there has been no progress in the case, he added.
 
‘The police are not co-operating with us,’ he told MSN. ‘The investigating officer keeps telling us that Saba has converted to Islam and contracted marriage, but he has not shown us any document as yet. We are pleading with police to at least recover the girl and arrange our meeting with her so that we can ascertain the facts ourselves, but he doesn’t listen to us.’
 
MSN’s attempts to reach police for comment were unsuccessful.

‘Saba is just a kid and could not have gone with [the neighbour] on her own,’ Masih said. ‘We have no one to turn to in this difficult time.’

(Source: Morning Star News)

Persecuted church couple marry

20220527 The Zhang Qiang and Xiao Yue couple exchanged rings

Despite several attempts by the Chinese authorities to sabotage their attempts to get married, Early Rain Covenant Church members Zhang Qiang and Xiao Yue (pictured) were finally able to wed.

The couple had to pick another venue for their wedding after Chengdu Municipal police canceled their wedding twice. They moved their wedding to the evening of May 24 but the owner of the wedding venue had to cancel their reservation because of pressure from the police.

Christians at the church, which has been relentlessly persecuted by the authorities, helped the couple find a wedding venue in Wenjiang, so they tentatively rescheduled their wedding to the afternoon of May 24. Minister Dai Zhichao, who was supposed to officiate at the wedding, could not make it because he was being watched by national security officers. Elder Li Yingqiang could not attend for the same reason, so he and Dai joined online. Dai officiated, and Li opened the ceremony with prayer. 

Few members of the church could attend the wedding in person due to police obstruction, but our partner, ChinaAid, reports that the entire wedding was ‘filled with God’s presence and grace’.

(Source: ChinaAid)

Pray

  • That Saba would be freed and reunited with her family.
  • For God’s peace and justice for her family.
  • That Pakistan’s police would protect all citizens’ rights including those of Christians.

Praise

  • Thank God for the marriage of Zhang Qiang and Xiao Yue.