(March 15, 2010) Another Pakistani Christian girl has died after she was raped and
burnt alive by the son of her Muslim employer. Kiran George was admitted to Mayo
Hospital in Lahore on March 9 in critical condition with burns on 80% of her body.
The girl who worked for a Muslim family in Sheikhupura, a town in Punjab, died last
Thursday after two days of agony. Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the Catholic
Church’s National Commission for Justice and Peace, NCJP, told AsiaNews that Mohammad
Raza Ahmda raped the Christian girl who, at first, confided only with her friends
for fear of losing her job. The extreme poverty of her family had led her to remain
silent. When the girl threatened with revealing her story to the police, Ahmda prevented
her from escaping. With the help of his sister, he then doused George with petrol
and set her on fire. Instead of taking the girl to hospital, her Muslim employer
called her parents telling them that her clothes caught fire while cleaning the kitchen.
However, before dying, the girl told the whole story to the police who have started
an investigation on the young man. The case of Kiran George is similar to the story
of Shazia Bashir, the 12 year old Christian girl who was raped and murdered by a powerful
lawyer in Lahore in January. The crime is still unpunished.