The 27-year-old daughter of this Christian father was kidnapped and raped multiple times. The Muslim assailants even tried to convert her to Islam and claim her as his wife against her will.
When the father, Gulzar Masih, found this out and filed a case against the four suspects in Pakistani court, two of them also attacked their victim's father—shooting at him and bashing his head, according to Morning Star News.
Masih recalled the attack on him in Lahore, Pakistan last Aug. 27 while on his way home.
"I was immersed in thoughts regarding the case when I saw Ghulam Hussain and Akram [Muslim kidnap and rape suspects] running towards me, hurling threats and abuses," Masih told the Morning Star News.
"As soon as they came near me, Hussain whipped out a pistol and fired a shot aimed at my chest. He then fired two more bullets at my legs, after which I fell down on the road," he continued. "He then asked Akram to break my skull with a metal object that he was carrying. I was hit in the head, after which I lost consciousness."
Masih suffered a severe head wound, a flesh wound from the bullet aimed at his chest, and broken bones from bullets fired at his legs, his attorney Hafiz Atiqur Salim said.
Earlier on Aug. 3, the four men charged in the case abducted Masih's daughter Asma Gulzar at gunpoint.
Asma managed to break free from her captors and told her father what happened.
Her father immediately reported the matter to the police and filed a case in court. The judge subsequently ordered the police to arrest the four men charged in the case.
But three days after the arrest order was issued, Hussain and his companion brutally attacked Masih.
"They may try again to kill me, but I will not stop from knocking on the doors of justice to avenge my daughter's dishonour," Masih said. "Hussain and his friends are also threatening my three sons with dire consequences, but we have resolved not to sit quiet and let them get away with such a heinous crime."
The aggrieved Christian father said he will neither succumb to the threats against his family nor give up his daughter.
"Ghulam Hussain and his friends abducted my daughter at gunpoint and took her to an unknown place," Masih said. "They tortured and raped her for months, and her escape from their captivity is nothing less than a miracle for us."
Cases of Christian and Hindu girls being kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam are nothing new in Pakistan, sources say. Every year, as many as 1,000 of these cases are recorded in the Muslim-majority South Asian country.
