by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent
ISLAMABAD (Worthy News) – The family of a young Christian teenager was still searching for their daughter Tuesday after she was abducted by a Muslim man in Pakistan’s Punjab province earlier this month, Christians told Worthy News.
Elishba Adnan, 14, was abducted by a 26-year-old Muslim man, publicly identified as Babar Mukhtar, according to sources familiar with the situation.
The June 11 kidnapping in her home city of Burewala, in Punjab’s Vehari District, shows “the growing crisis of forced conversions and marriages of Christian girls in Pakistan”, said Sardar Mushtaq Gill, a prominent human rights advocate.
The Pakistani activist, the founder of advocacy group LEAD Ministries Pakistan, says he has “handled numerous” such cases.
He told Worthy News that her father, Adnan Masih, a sanitary worker by profession, filed a complaint with the local police after his daughter went missing.
“However, there are reports suggesting police were reluctant to register a First Information Report (FIR),” Gill said.
Police cited a “widely held but controversial belief that many such cases involve Christian girls eloping with Muslim men due to romantic relationships. That eventually led to conversion and marriage,” Gill recalled.
SYSTEMATIC ABUSE
“LEAD Ministries Pakistan has been actively working to combat the systemic abuse of Christian girls and women in Pakistan through forced marriages and conversions.”
Worthy News has a policy of not naming victims of sexual abuse unless they come forward publicly without duress. In the case of the girl, it was not clear whether she had become a victim of an assault, and she had been named publicly.
Pakistani Pastor Imran Amanat, who currently leads LEAD, stressed that these narratives of “love affairs” are often used to dismiss the coercion involved in such incidents.
“Christian girls, coming from poor and marginalized communities, are seen as easy targets,” he told Worthy News.
“They are often lured with promises of a better life, but the reality they face after conversion is one of abuse, neglect, and often abandonment.”
Gill recalled that he saw “countless Christian girls forced into marriage, isolated from their families, and pressured to convert to Islam. Many of them are eventually abandoned or mistreated, and the so-called marriage turns into a life of suffering. These are not love stories—they are tragedies.”
The reported forced conversions in Pakistan, particularly of underage minority girls, haveled to international concern. “Despite constitutional protections and growing calls from civil society, legislative action has been slow.”
PROVIDING SHELTER
He noted that “Rights groups have long demanded clearer laws and enforcement mechanisms to protect minority women and girls from religiously motivated violence and coercion.”
LEAD Ministries says it will provide “legal aid and shelter to victims of such cases, advocating for justice and legislative reforms.”
The organization urged the government of Pakistan, a mainly Muslim nation, and international human rights bodies “to intervene and ensure the protection of religious minorities in the country.”
As the case of Elishba Adnan unfolds, LEAD Ministries vowed to pursue justice for her and other victims of forced conversion.
“We will not be silent,” Pastor Amanat declared. “Every girl’s life and faith matter. No one should be forced to change their religion or enter a marriage against their will.”
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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