by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent
ISLAMABAD (Worthy News) – A Christian father in Pakistan’s city of Lahore continues to seek justice for his 13-year-old daughter, who was abducted in July by a Muslim man from the same neighborhood.
Despite filing a police report, her father, Shahbaz Masih, said he was stunned to learn that on August 1, a court accepted a statement from his daughter claiming she had voluntarily converted to Islam, declared she was 18, and married her abductor—claims Masih insists are false and coerced.
Worthy News is withholding the girl’s full name as she may be a victim of sexual abuse, and it was unclear whether she consented to publication.
Masih of Lahore in Punjab Province said Shehryar Ahmad, a 30-year-old Muslim, abducted his daughter on July 29 when she stepped outside her home to go to a shop.
“When Maria did not return home, we began searching for her but failed to find her,” Masih told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News service.
“We later learned that Maria had been taken by Ahmad, who lived in the same locality,” he reportedly said.
BROADER PATTERN
Rights groups say her case reflects a broader pattern of abductions, forced conversions, and underage marriages of Christian girls.
Courts often dismiss birth records and hand minors over to alleged abductors, according to legal observers.
The advocacy group Raah-e-Nijaat challenged her marriage and conversion at the Lahore High Court, but the petition was dismissed and redirected to a Sessions Court, which admitted the case on Wednesday.
A legal team plans to present evidence of her minority and argue that the marriage violates the Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Act.
Lawyers also seek criminal proceedings against Ahmad and others involved, while urging the enforcement of child-marriage laws.
The legal battle comes despite President Asif Ali Zardari signing a law raising the minimum marriage age to 18 nationwide in May. Yet in Punjab, the age remains 16, and under Islamic law, child marriage may still be permitted. Critics say this loophole enables the exploitation of vulnerable Christian girls.
Pakistan ranks eighth on the 2025 Open Doors World Watch List of 50 countries where Christians reportedly face the most persecution.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
The District of Columbia has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, challenging the president’s decision to deploy National Guard troops to the nation’s capital as part of a federal crackdown on crime.
A confidential report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has revealed that Iran expanded its stockpile of highly enriched uranium in the weeks leading up to Israel’s June 13 military strikes, raising new alarms over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
A new study has found that just half of U.S. lawmakers vote in alignment with biblical principles, with Republicans dominating the top rankings and Democrats overwhelmingly at the bottom.
President Donald Trump on Thursday pressed European leaders to stop buying Russian oil that he said is helping fund Moscow’s war in Ukraine and urged them to place economic pressure on Beijing for supporting the Kremlin’s war effort.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has put on hold a controversial plan to apply Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank, after receiving sharp warnings from both regional allies and Western nations. The issue was slated for a ministerial discussion on Thursday but has been replaced by a session focused on the mounting security challenges in the area.
Federal authorities announced Wednesday the indictments of 22 Chinese nationals, four China-based chemical companies, and three Americans in a sweeping international operation aimed at dismantling the fentanyl pipeline flooding U.S. communities.
Israel is expanding and upgrading its secretive Negev Nuclear Research Center near Dimona, raising new questions about the country’s widely believed status as the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed state, according to an in-depth Associated Press report released Wednesday.