London: A U.K.-based charity has called on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to grant asylum to a 14-year-old Christian girl who was abducted at gunpoint during the Covid-19 lockdown and forcibly married and converted to Islam by a Muslim married man.
The Catholic charity Aid to Church in Need, which supports persecuted Christians around the world, is urging concerned Christians to add their names to an online petition that will be sent to the prime minister on behalf of Catholic teenager Maira Shahbaz in Pakistan, who was abducted in April.
In August, Maira fled the home of her alleged husband, Mohamad Nakash, weeks after the Lahore High Court ordered her to return to her abductor and ruled that she was legally married to the Muslim man.
“Regardless of what the court eventually decides, Maira’s life will forever be in danger,” the charity said. “There is the threat of honour killing. Extremists in Pakistan consider her an apostate and will kill her at the first chance. Her lawyer said men have been looking for her, knocking on doors and asking for her whereabouts.”
The charity’s spokesman, John Pontifex, said the “shocking case is a chance for Britain to show its commitment to Christian welfare who so often feel abandoned by the West,” according to The Telegraph.
Source: christianpost.com