Thankfully the man was caught quickly and the boy survived the horrible ordeal, but without serious scars:
A Christian boy of only 7 years old was brutally sodomized by a Muslim rapist who later fled the scene when two Christian men ran to the screaming boy and rescued him from his terrifying and brutal ordeal.
Daim Masih (7 yrs) is a grade one student attending Bethel Christian School, from the district of Sahiwal in the punjab. His school is 2km away from his home and usually he would be dropped to school by his father with his 9 year old sister Carol and collected also. However, on some occasions when the father was working Carol would lead her brother home and they would walk with many other children also used to the unaccompanied journey.
On 29th January, Carol was ill with a very high fever so her mother Sheeba (36 yrs) was looking after Carol and her youngest child Komal so Daim’s father Javed Masih (42 yrs) explained to his son that he should follow the other children and arrive home, especially as on that day their were exams in school so his day was shortened. Daim had walked home by himself on several previous occasions and was not fazed by this, unsupervised travel to and from school is a very common practice for children in Pakistan which normally begins from the age of 4 years.
Daim started his journey to his home at village Minar Wali 86/9 and was making good headway and was at the mid-point of his journey 1km from his home, when he was met by Shan Muhammed (19 yrs), who is a well known local village youth. Shan spoke to Daim and shared exiting news, he said:
“Hi Daim, it’s nice to see you I have good news one of our cows has given birth to young calves. Would you like to come with me and see them?
Shan knew Daim and his family from before as they live in the same community. He was well aware that Daim had a great fascination and passion for animals and was using this love for farm creatures to entice Daim to go with him to a secluded spot on his family’s farm.
Shan held Daim’s hand and described the beauty of the young calves and the way in which they were playing to Daim. However, Daim some realised that they were not going in the direction of the animals. He began to get sacred and asked Shan why they were going the wrong way. Shan told him he had another big surprise for him.
They walked a few metres to some trees when suddenly Shan ripped of his shirt, then the rest of his clothes and threw Daim to the floor. Shan then jumped on Daim and proceeded with a sexual assault and sodomization of poor Daim. While the attack was happening the tiny 7 year old struggled to fight of Shan who was much bigger and more powerful then him.
Daim was punched, slapped and kneed by Shan who was shouting obscenities during the attack and demanding Daim to stop his screaming. The violence and the unlawful penetration of Dain was so painful however, that he could not stop his screaming. Desperate for him to be quiet or thrilled by the power and subjugation of his prey, sexual predator Shan began to tighten his hands around Daim’s neck and was slowly throttling him to death while having his wicked way with him.
Fortunately a grandfather Younas Masih (62 yrs) and uncle Samuel Masih (32 yrs) of Daim heard his piercing screams from their home which was near the farm and came rushing out to see what was happening.
When he saw the two men arriving at the scene of his attack, Shan pulled up his Sharwar (trouser) tied it up and ran for the wall of the farm. He leapt over the wall and disappeared from site but not before being seem by Younas and Samuel.
The two men grabbed Daim, they picked up his clothes and covered him with them (clothes were placed on top of him not reworn) as they carried him to their church to get help. At Gospel Church which is affiliated with the Church of Pakistan, they met Bishop Abraham who called the police using the emergency services number 112.
Despite the serious nature of the crime the police arrived after 30 minutes and a few later an ambulance arrived. Daim was put into the ambulance and taken to District Headquarters Hospital 8 km away from the church and Bishop Abraham, Sheeba, Younas and Samuel were with him.
At the hospital the police took a statement from Bishop Abraham, Younas, Samuel and Daim and an immediate FIR was registered by the police at Police Station Gala Mundi, Sahiwal and an investigation began immediately.
The same day the family were contacted by Sub Inspector (SI) Nazeer Ahmed and advised that Shan Muhammad had been arrested and was safely in their custody. Police have also informed the family that Shan has admitted the rape and kidnap of young Daim and that he will stand trial.
Shan’s parenst have approached the family of Daim to apologize for his crime and ask if the family would accept a payment as per Pakistan’s Qisas and Diyat laws, but the family of Daim have refused. Sheeba spoke to Mehwish Bhatti of the BPCA, she said:
“I have not slept since I discovered the attack on Daim. I cannot imagine the horror he felt as he realised he was going to be attacked or when he knew there was nothing he could do to stop the attack.
“I want to meet Shan so I can ask him why he attacked my son in this way, I want to know what made him do such an evil act that will scar my poor boy forever and has rocked our family. I want him to know and understand the pain he has inflicted on Daim and all those who love him.”
Wilson Chowdhry, Chairman of the BPCA, said:
“The constant rape of young children in Pakistan is a blight on the nation’s reputation. The rape and murder of Zainab has highlighted this problem more globally but still the world fail;s to understand that Christian children are more susceptible to such crimes and their number of victims are in the thousands every year.
“Only the screaming of Daim saved hm from being murdered in my opinion. In response to the noise the quick-thinking grandfather and uncle of Daim saved him from being strangled to death by an over exuberant and violent youth who clearly is imbalanced.
“Justice in this case will serve to frighten others from such a audacious atack but in a country riven with extremism, anarchy and criminal impunity how much will it really dent the existing malaise – I doubt very much.
“Pakistani authorities must take seriously their obligatios to protect the innocent children preyed upon by these evil, sexually depraved beasts in their country. They must bring about a rule of law that frightens would-be-killers and rapists from such attacks.
Moreover they must get to the root cause of the sordid mentality that has destroyed the very fabric of their society and enact programs of education and social welfare that attempts to eradicate the moral vacum that leads to such crimes.” (source)