2 Chinese nationals arrested for forcing Pak girl into marriage

    Lahore, Jul 22 (PTI) Two Chinese nationals have been arrested in Pakistan's Punjab province for allegedly forcing a Pakistani girl into marrying one of them and attempting to kill her when she refused, according to a media report.
    In May, eight Chinese nationals, including a woman, were arrested for allegedly being involved in trafficking Pakistani girls to China by contracting marriage and forcing them in flesh trade there.
    A woman told the police that her younger sister has been working with two Chinese nationals as a translator. The two used to call her sister on her mobile phone to convince her for a marriage, Dawn News reported on Monday.
    One of the two Chinese called her sister and asked her to come to Chakri Road as they wanted to meet her. Her sister along with her two male friends went to meet him at Chakri Road, the woman said in her FIR .
    She claimed that soon the two Chinese nationals arrived there in a car and started using abusive language against her younger sister and attempted to kill her while holding her by neck. However, she said that bother her friends rescued her, the report said.
    Both the suspects have been arrested after the FIR was registered, Sub-Inspector Nazim Hussain was quoted as saying by the report.
    The suspects have also been presented before a court which had sent them on judicial remand to the Adiala jail.
    According to the preliminary investigation, the two individuals were part of a Chinese group that was allegedly involved in such marriage cases involving Pakistani girls. However, it was yet to be confirmed whether the Chinese nationals were staying in Pakistan legally or not, he added.
    However, a senior Chinese official in Islamabad has denied claims in the media about Pakistani women being subjected to forced prostitution and organ sale in China.
    Deputy chief of mission at Chinese Embassy Lijian Zhao in May, said that out of the 142 marriages, only a few isolated cases of harassment or torture had been reported. All marriages, he claimed, were legal and registered after due process.
    Pakistani government has recently ordered the Federal Investigating Agency to take action against the gangs involved in smuggling of Pakistani girls to China on the pretext of contracting marriage.
    According to Pakistani media reports, poor girls, are lured, with money and promises of 'good life', by the illegal matchmaking centres to marry Chinese men who are either visiting or working in Pakistan.
    These centres produce fake documents of Chinese men showing them either as Christians or Muslims. Most of the girls reportedly became victims of human trafficking and forced into prostitution, the reports said. PTI AMS AKJ AMS

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from a PTI feed.)