Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Faisalabad (Agenzia Fides) - The police station in Sadar Samundari near Faisalabad, has released the 28-year old Muhammad Gujjar Arif, of Samundari, alleged murderer of Amariah Mansha, an18-year-old Catholic who was brutally murdered on November 27, 2011, on land owned by Gujjar. According to the the girl’s family, nicknamed "Maria Goretti of Pakistan", local police officials have tried to buy the silence and withdrawal of the complaint on behalf of the family. "It is a crime that goes unpunished", notes the local Church. According to information by Fides, the girl was killed because she refused marriage and forced conversion to Islam. The community defines her the "martyr of faith" (see Fides 2 and 7/12/2011).
As reported to Fides by the Commission "Justice and Peace" of the diocese of Faisalabad, the police cleared the man thanks to Muslim witnesses from the same village. Between Arif Gujjar and Amariah Mansha, it is said that there was a "loving relationship". Gujjar said to have had extensive communication with the girl and that Amariah repeatedly asked to marry her. Denying any wrongdoing on the crime, Gujjar said that, when Amariah was found, she was with the victim's father, desperately looking for her. According to other witnesses, at the time of discovery, the girl was lying on the ground, near her there was a gun, and there was nobody on the scene of the crime, it seemed she had commetted suicide.
Mansha Masih, Amariah’s father, says this testimony is "false", recalling that his daughter had complained of abuse and threats a month before her death, even by Arif’s friends. Mansha Masih told Fides: "Officials of the local police offered me 500,000 Pakistani rupees (over $ 5,000) to find a compromise, but I refused and asked for justice. The investigations that were done were all in favor of the guilty, and now they have released him, even "thanks to the support of some politically powerful local Muslim men, such as Rao Kashif, who did everything toget him released". According to the victim's father, "the police took no fingerprints on the murder weapon and said they had not yet had the medical report on the corpse." For this Mansha Masih filed an appeal to the regional Office of the Police, alleging manipulation of the investigation.
Fr. Khalid Rashid Asi, Vicar general of the diocese of Faisalabad, told Fides: "Our fear is that high-profile political people want to bury this case: for now the investigations have ended in stalemate. Violating the rights of the poor is common practice in the villages. We are deeply regretted, since the police have released a guilty ". The question remains: who killed Amariah? (SM-PA) (12/03/2012)
