17-year-old Christian domestic worker kidnapped from Lahore Mehar Town
A 17-year-old Christian domestic worker called Monica Masih has been kidnapped from Lahore Mehar Town.
The teenager’s father Rafaqat Masih told the police that she went to work as normal on April 23, but never returned home.
When she didn’t come home her younger daughter Zanica went to the house where Monica worked and asked after her sister. She was told Monica had not been to work that day.
Masih has four daughters and his wife is dead. He works as a loader at a fruit and vegetable market, earning a daily wage. His other job is at a farmhouse near Mehar Town where he does tasks in exchange for milk.
Masih said: “Someone has abducted my daughter for illegitimate purposes.”
He told us “My lawyer is helping me and they wrote an application for the recovery of my daughter to the SHO police station here, but several days have passed and the investigating officer Sabir did nothing. He took no serious action for the arrest of the people nominated FIR.”
He further said “My wife Naseem died in 2014. At that time all my daughters were very young and I worked day and night for the education of my daughters. Even my oldest daughter started helping me, to add the monthly income of the family, and she has been going to work for the last three months.”
He also said: “My daughters stayed home alone all day long and I left them home and gave them into the hands of Jesus Christ. Jesus protects my daughters.”
He started crying when he was telling his story. No family member is helping him during this critical time.
Initially, Masih wanted to hide this news from his family and neighborhood because of his other daughters.
He said, “I have faced many financial problems, even lost my wife, and now I have lost one daughter, but by the grace of God still I have the courage to fight with the circumstances and to bring my daughter back.
“And I will never give up the struggle for the education of my daughters. Aliya, Zianica, and Zaniyah, all three sisters are attending the same school and same classes. Because of the death of their mother a gap came in the education of the children. So unfortunately all three girls are in the same class 5.”
During this conversation, Masih remained weeping until his eyes became red. He again said, “I want my daughters to get a good education, find them good husbands and then I can have some rest”.