An Australian woman Lara Hall fell prey to a Pakistani man who had promised her a lavish house and a dream life in Pakistan.
After meeting Sajjad on Facebook through a Pakistani friend, she flew to Lahore for his brother’s wedding.
However, when the 30-year-old arrived, she was confronted with a filthy house which was strewn with litter looking far from the pictures of the Spanish inspired villa she was shown on Facebook.
Speaking to media persons, she said, “The house was certainly not like anything in the pictures, I was taken aback when I arrived. There were twenty people living in five bedrooms. He said they were just there for the wedding. It was filthy.”
Over the next few weeks Sajjad admitted that he had fabricated the Spanish villa and that he was not the man he had claimed to be. “All feelings of love died. Then the abuse started,” she said. Sajjad then kept her starved and raped her daily.
“Sajjad raped me and his brother attempted to rape me on multiple occasions. I was a kept woman, I was denied feminine hygiene products and had to bleed freely, I was starved over long periods of time – on one occasion up to 14 hours,” Lara said.
She said that she kept on refusing Sajjad’s repeated requests to marry him and converting to Islam. “I had come all the way to Pakistan to be a prisoner.”
With her 30-day visa past expiry, Sajjad also insisted that the Australian woman stay indoors to avoid being arrested by police.
At first, the woman attempted to contact the Australian consulate and High Commission who reportedly told her to “seek safety”.
Disappointed by their “lacklustre” attitude, she then got in touch with Dr Kaiser Rafiq, chief executive of the elite AFOHS club, a prestigious members-only club for armed forces officers, diplomats and prominent business personalities.
One night when Sajjad threatened to kill her, Lara chained her in the bedroom and called the police who escorted her to a local precinct, from where she was released into the care of Dr Rafiq.
She eventually managed to safely leave the country with the assistance of the British Pakistani Christian Association which helped provide her with safe passage home.
She also had to pay a $400 fine to the Pakistani Ministry of Interior for overstaying her visa.
Published in Daily Times, January 27th 2019.
