On 11 June, Elishba Adnan, 14, was taken from her home by a 26-year-old Muslim, Babar Mukhtar. Learning of his daughter’s disappearance, her father, Adnan Masih, immediately filed a report with the City Police Station in Burewala.
After pleading for the police to register a First Information Report (FIR) without success, Masih sought assistance from Albert Patras, a rights advocate based in Vehari District of Punjab Province. Patras noted that this delay increased the family’s distress over their daughter’s well-being.
“After his own efforts failed, Masih reached out to us for help,” Patras said. “When we contacted the police, we were told that the girl had converted to Islam and married Mukhtar of her own free will. We asked the police to show us the documents on the basis of which they were claiming her conversion and marriage, but they refused.”
They then met with a senior police officer and urged him to direct subordinates to register an FIR, the legal right of the complainant, but officers still haven’t filed a case, he said.
The delay in the registration of the FIR and police inaction gave sufficient time for the suspect to convert the girl and falsify marriage with her to give legal protection for the crime, he said.
“We do not know if he has seduced my child or blackmailed her into going with him. It is abduction nonetheless, because my daughter is a minor and she could have been easily influenced by the much older man,” her father told sources.
The family had removed Elishba from school to help her mother take care of her newborn twin brothers, Masih said. She is the oldest of his six children.
“Elishba’s disappearance has devastated our lives,” Masih said. “We do not have any information about her condition and well-being. If the police had taken prompt action on our complaint, we could have rescued her from Mukhtar’s illegal custody, but now much time has lapsed, and God knows what has become of her.”
Patras, the rights activist, said that they would ask police to charge Mukhtar under laws related to abduction, rape, child marriage, forced marriage, and sexual exploitation of a child.
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