A 12-year-old Christian girl in Pakistan who was kidnapped, raped, shackled hand and foot, and forced to work from dusk till dawn while authorities refused to act has at last spoken out about her ordeal.

Farah Shaheen was rescued from the house of her 45-year-old abductor Khizar Ahmed Ali (Hayat) in December 2020 after harrowing five-month ordeal.

Her father, Asif Masih said his daughter was “was treated like a slave. She was forced to work all day, cleaning filth in a cattle yard. 24-7 she was attached to a chain.”

She was also forcibly converted to Islam, married off to her kidnapper and “was sexually assaulted by her abductor and raped multiple times by [his] landlords”.

In addition, Mr Masih described his “dismay” at the alleged failure of the police, the courts and medical professionals, whom he accuses of “repeatedly letting us down” for failing to do justice for his daughter.

Mr Masih blasted the police for failing to act in June 2020 when he reported that Farah had been abducted and for taking three months to register the case.

Moreover, in spite of an official birth certificate confirming Farah was only 12 in June when she was abducted, a medical report, commissioned by the courts assessing the legitimacy of her marriage to Mr Ahmed, gave the girl’s age as between 16 and 17.

He also spoke out against the judiciary which – pending a court case into the legitimacy of her marriage to a man more than 30 years her senior – placed Farah in a women’s refuge rather than allowing her to go home to her family.