Christian Girl Rescued by Police from Kidnapper in Pakistan

by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Police in Pakistan rescued a 12-year-old Christian girl who was abducted two month ago by a Muslim neighbor who forcibly converted her to Islam and coerced her into marrying him, the Morning Star News reported.

Saba Shafique, 12, was abducted from her home by Muhammad Ali, 35, on January 5th.

On Wednesday, March 5, Lahore Police, assisted by Sindh Police, conducted a raid on an outhouse in a village in Shaheed Benazirabad, where they rescued Saba Shafique and arrested Muhammad Ali, according to sources. She was returned to her home the following day.

According to rights advocates, Ali initially took her to Sialkot city where he fabricated a religious conversion and marriage certificate on January 8th before relocating her to Shaheed Benazirabad city in Sindh Province, formerly known as Nawabshah.

“I cannot express my joy when I hugged Saba after so many days,” Rakhil Shafique, Saba’s mother, told Morning Star News.

“Her father and I haven’t been able to sleep properly all this time, but now we will finally take rest.” Saba recounted the day of her abduction, saying, “On the day he took me from my home, he asked me to accompany him to the bazaar where he would buy me presents,” she revealed. “After some time, I asked him to take me back home as my parents would be worried about me, but he snubbed me and forced me to sit on a bus.”

Saba revealed that she was unaware Ali was taking her to Sialkot, where he had a cleric produce a fake religious conversion certificate and orchestrate a false Islamic marriage, falsely declaring her age as 18.

“Ali then forced me to record a video saying that I had converted to Islam and married him of my free will,” Saba stated. “I was also forced to state that I’m 18 years old, and that my parents should not take any action against us.”

Ali subsequently moved Saba to a relative’s village in Shaheed Benazirabad District, Sindh Province, to avoid police intervention following a complaint by her father, Shafique Masih.

In an effort to secure the marriage legally, Ali filed a petition in the Hyderabad Sessions Court seeking protection for their union, a strategy often used to deter families from rescuing abducted daughters.

“During the time I was there, Ali did bad things with me which numbed my mind and body,” she continued. “He also beat me whenever I used to cry for my parents and told him that I wanted to go back home. I was kept locked in a room most of the time.”

Saba expressed her relief upon seeing her parents during the early morning police raid that freed her. “I was very happy to see them – I had already started regretting going with Ali without my parents’ knowledge, and I don’t want to cause them any worry in future,” she said.

Her rescue was facilitated by the Christian paralegal organization HARDS Pakistan, which secured authorization for the interprovincial police operation.

“We are grateful to the senior leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party, which governs Sindh Province, for facilitating the recovery of the minor Christian girl,” Sohail Habil, executive director of HARDS Pakistan, told Morning Star News.

In Pakistan, girls as young as 10 are often kidnapped, forced to convert to Islam, raped, and coerced into Islamic “marriages,” where they are pressured to make false statements supporting their abductors, rights advocates report. Judges frequently overlook proof of the children’s ages, returning them to their kidnappers as “legal wives.”

The Center for Social Justice recorded 136 cases of abduction and forced conversion in 2023, marking the highest annual count to date. Of these, 110 Hindu girls in Sindh Province and 26 Christian girls in Punjab Province were abducted, with 77 percent of these incidents involving minors under 18 in Sindh.

Unofficial estimates indicate that up to 1,000 girls from religious minorities are subjected to forced religious conversions and marriages each year.

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