ICC Note: A Christian attorney in Pakistan is facing threats from lawmakers after defending a Christian man who was reportedly in a relationship with a Muslim woman. The family of the Muslim girl did not want her to run away and elope with the Christian boy, so they repeatedly pressured his family to return her to them after she ran away. The attorneys that were then hired by the girl’s family after her most recent attempt to elope issued threats to the Christian boy and his attorney that if they did not return the girl to her family they would be killed. Furthermore, they threatened that the entire Christian community would be attacked by people from the neighboring communities if she was not returned to her parents. Christians in Pakistan suffer severe discrimination, even in the law courts of the country; the country is predominantly Muslim and there is a great amount of religious conflict and tension that exists between the Muslims and the other religious minorities.

08/18/2016, Sahiwal, Pakistan (Christians in Pakistan) – A Christian advocate Javed Sahotra faces life threatening situation, following his legal assistance to a Christian boy who had been in a relationship with a Muslim woman. Advocate Javed Sahotra who represents the Christian boy in court, was threatened in the presence of President and Vice President of District Bar Association Sahiwal.

In compliance with details, a Christian boy Zain Amar resident of Chak 377-EB, Burewala, in Punjab province was allegedly in a relationship with a Muslim woman Shireen (her real name withheld) who hails from Sindh. The girl had eloped several times and reached Zain’s house, wanting to marry him-however, every time her family pressurized the meager Christian family to return the girl.

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