LAHORE, Pakistan — A married 35-year-old Muslim man abducted the 12-year-old daughter of his Christian neighbor and took her to another province, where he forcibly converted her to Islam and married her.
Saba Shafique was abducted by Muhammad Ali from outside her home in the Walton Model Colony No. 2 neighborhood of Lahore Cantonment, Punjab Province on Jan. 5, according to her father, Shafique Masih. Ali took her to Shaheed Benazirabad city, formerly known as Nawabshah, in Sindh Province, he said.
Masih, a Catholic who works as a painter after retiring from the Pakistan Army, said Ali produced a fake marriage certificate on Jan. 8 that states Saba’s age as 18, though her birth certificate states she was born on May 16, 2012, making her 12 years old.
“Saba’s physical appearance also doesn’t match the age stated in the alleged marriage and Islamic conversion certificates,“Whoever facilitated this sham conversion and marriage should be equally punished along with Ali.”
Factory Area police intentionally stated Saba’s age as 15 to 16 years old in the First Information Report (FIR), though Masih had emphasized to them that her age as 12 years and 9 months in his complaint, he said.
“The police deliberately misstated Saba’s age, but when I protested, they told me that it would help in strengthening my case,” he said. “My lawyer, Rana Irfan, has filed an application to rectify her age as per her birth certificate.”
He lamented that more than a month has passed since his daughter’s abduction, yet police were making no effort to rescue her.
“The police told me that they needed official permission to go to Sindh Province to recover Saba, but three weeks have passed and there’s no progress in the matter,” he said. “I’m visiting the police station on a daily basis to plead with them to act, but it seems now that they are not serious in finding my minor daughter.”
A Christian lawmaker in Punjab Assembly, Ejaz Augustine, expressed concern over the increasing cases of abduction of underage Christian girls in Punjab Province.
“Forced conversions and marriages of minor girls have become a serious crisis for the Christian community,” Augustine said. “A bill criminalizing child marriages is pending in the Punjab Assembly since April 2024, but it is very unfortunate that despite our repeated demands for its passage, there’s been no movement in this regard.”
Augustine said that the four Christian lawmakers in the provincial assembly were also making efforts to bring legislation against forced conversions of minority girls. But the lawmaker, who has also served as a former minister for human rights, said that the inordinate delay in passing the anti-child marriage legislation showed elements were working against it behind the scenes.
