Christians in Pakistan say they are worried and in pain as they cry for justice after two women were raped and killed.
On Jan. 7, Christians in Makhan Colony Pakistan cried in agony for justice as they wail over the remains of the two women who were abducted, raped, and killed. In the funeral of the two ladies killed by Muslim men, the Christians expressed their concern for the family as well as their worry over the increasing violence inflicted on believers.
Abida, 23, and her sister Sajida, 25, were buried after disappearing months ago. Theit grieving mother was not allowed to see her daughters' faces during the funeral, according to Union of Catholic Asian News.
"Their faces were beyond recognition. I couldn't see them for the last time, Rani Bibi, the mother of the two victims said. "In dreams I see them agonizing in pain. I can't tolerate this," she added.
On Nov, 26, the sisters went out together to go shopping and did not return. Days passed and the family still did not receive any update on the siblings' whereabouts.
On Dec. 11, police officers found the dead body of Sajida in a sewerage tunnel near her workplace. Her neck was slit and her body showed signs of struggle.
Authorities later found her sister's body floating on another drain. Abida's dead body was found on Jan. 4, handcuffed with signs that she was choked to death.
Naeem and Mumtaz were among the three suspects arrested by the police. They were from the same medicine factory where Abida and Sajida worked.
In a statement released to the police, two of the three suspects claimed that they had affairs with the sisters. They admitted the crime and said they were forced to do so because the sisters were blackmailing and demanding them to give money.
Police deputy Inspector General Shariq Jamal released their statements in a press conference.
"They have confessed to killing the two sisters because they were blackmailing them on the basis of some obscene videos, Jamal said. "The sisters had taken some money from them and had been demanding more. They had a relationship which turned sour. We have recovered a sharp paper cutter," he added, UCA News reported.
During a hearing at a Lahore session court on Jan. 11, the victims' families refused to believe the suspects' confessions. The family accused the suspects of murdering the Abida and Sajida after the sisters rejected them. The mother added that the two Muslim suspects forced the sisters to convert to Islam and marry them.
"Sajida had left her job at the factory two weeks before her disappearance, Bibi said. "Their husbands are sanitary workers," she added.
Abida and Sajida's case are in addition to the existing reports of Christian girls in Pakistan suffering abduction, rape, harassment, forced marriages as well as forced conversions to Islam, making it the fifth most dangerous country for Christians to live in. From Nov. 2018 to June 2019, Legal Evangelical Association Development, an advocacy group providing legal aid to persecuted minorities reported a total of 28 Christian girls who suffered almost similar cases.
On Jan, 6, Punjab chief minister Sardar Usman Buzdar condemned the killing and assured the family of justice at any cost and strict implementation of punishment to the accused.
