After one year and nine months, the court of Sahiwal Additional District and Sessions Judge Ghazala Yasmeen sentenced Muhammad Buta to life imprisonment for the crime of raping an eight-year-old Christian girl, Aliza, in village 134/9L, near Ghala Mandi police station.
On September 2, 2021, at around five o’clock in the evening, the family of Yunus Masih sent Aliza, the eldest child in a family of 5 children, to check to see if the doctor’s clinic was open or not. A young man, Muhammad Buta, saw the girl coming and took her to a deserted compound.
When Aliza did not return home, the family members started
looking for the girl, and found her on the corner of another street, bleeding and crying.
Aliza’s father, Yunus Masih, and her uncle brought the girl to the DHQ hospital emergency ward. After an initial examination, the doctors transferred her to the gynecological ward, where a panel of lady doctors confirmed the rape of eight-year-old Aliza.
After the news on police media, the Inspector General of Punjab took notice and asked the Regional Police Officer of Sahiwal for a report of the incident. Ghala Mandi police station started an investigation, and registered a case on September 3, 2021. A search for the accused began, and within an hour, Muhammad Buta was arrested.
The affected families have been waiting for justice from the higher courts for one year and 9 months. Due to their fear of the accused, the affected families moved their residency to a different area.
For the 18 months after the Aliza rape case was registered, CAPC worked diligently to fulfill all legal requirements of the court.
In December 2021, Mr. Nadeem Bhatti, president of Canadian Aid to Persecuted Christians (CAPC), along with his legal team, Akmal Bhatti, human rights activist Wilson Raza and Rubina Bhatti, expressed sympathy to the victim’s family at their home, and provided humanitarian assistance and legal aid.