Pakistan trades Hindu, Christian girls as ‘concubines’ and ‘forced brides’ to China, says US top official

US Top official has made shocking revelations against Pakistan that Pakistan is resorting to selling Hindu and Christian women to China as “concubines” and “forced brides”.

One of the root cause of “forced brides” for Chinese men is “religious minorities, Christian and Hindu women, being marketed as concubines and as forced as brides into China” , according to Samuel Brownback, the top US diplomat for religious freedom.

“That happened because there is no effective support and discrimination against religious minorities”.

He listed this as one of the reasons for the declaration of Pakistan as a country of special concern (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act.

China has resorted to such means id because it’s decades-long one-child policy, there is an acute shortage of women, given the cultural preference for young people which leads Chinese men to recruit women from other countries as brides, mistresses and workers.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended the inclusion of India in the CPC,
Brownback, however, said that Washington was closely watching the situation in India, and these concerns were discussed in private talks at the high government level, and will continue to be raised.”

The CAA expedites citizenship for Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and Sikhs fleeing religious persecution in neighbouring Islamic or Muslim-majority nations, but does not prohibit Muslims from becoming citizens following the normal procedures.

“That doesn’t mean that we don’t have problems with the statute (CAA),” he said. “The violence is a problem. We will continue to raise those issues.”

“Those are some of the basis as to why Pakistan continues to be on the CPC list and India is not,” he said.

“These are issues that people spend a great deal of time reviewing and we review extensively the situation in Pakistan in both countries,” added Brownback, whose formal title is Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom.

Answering an American reporter’s question why Pompeo did not follow the USCIRF recommendation to designate India as a CPC, Brownback said, “I can’t go into the decision-making process that the Secretary went through.”

But, he said Pompeo is “well aware of a lot of the communal violence that is happening in India as well as aware of the statutes that have been enacted and some of the issues associated with the (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi government and, as I said, he has raised at the highest level, but just decided at this point in time not to place them on a CPC or a special watch list”.

Brownback said that there were also “several recommendations made by the commission that the Secretary did not follow, and this was one of them”.

Pompeo did not follow the rcommendations to designate Russia and Vietnam as CPCs.

In addition to Pakistan, Pompeo put China, Myanmar Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan on the CPC list.