Islamabad:
A Christian girl was killed allegedly by a Muslim man in Pakistan after her parents rejected a marriage proposal sent by him, a media report said on Sunday. The deceased, Sonia, and the accused, Shehzad, were residents of the Old Airport area in Rawalpindi, the Express Tribune newspaper reported.
The local police station officers claimed to have arrested an accused named Faizan, whereas raids were being carried out to arrest the prime suspect Shehzad, the paper said. Shehzad’s mother is also said to have sent her son’s proposal for Sonia, but her parents refused as she was to marry Faizan, the paper said.
On the day of the incident, the girl was travelling with Faizan on the highway, when Shehzad opened fire on her, the paper said, citing police. The police said that, as per the preliminary investigation, the murder appears to have been carried out of personal resentment. However, the deputy inspector general (DIG) of police said the police were investigating all aspects, the paper reported.
Incident involving forced conversion of minority non-Muslim girls and subsequent marriage with Muslim men frequently surface in Pakistan. Last month, a young Christian girl, Arzoo Raja, was reportedly abducted, forced to convert and marry a 44-year-old Muslim man in Karachi. Her parents filed a case which is still in the court.
Christians constitute around 2 per cent of the population in Muslim-dominated Pakistan. Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad have a large Christian population. There are many Christian villages in the Punjab heartland, while there is also a sizable population in the deeply conservative north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, particularly in Peshawar city..
