Pakistani Authorities Refuse to Intervene in Abduction and Forced Conversion of Christian Girls, 10 and 13

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) today urged the Pakistani Government to take action to ensure the return of two abducted Christian children to their family.

Anila and Saba Masih, aged 10 and 13 respectively, were abducted in southern Punjab, Pakistan on 26 June, while on the way to visit their uncle. They are subsequently reported to have been forced to convert to Islam, and Saba was married off to one of the abductors.

Yesterday, following an appeal by the girls’ father, Younis Masih, a Lahore High Court judge in Multan overturned an earlier ruling by the Muzaffargarh Sessions Court that had granted custody of the children to their kidnappers. The girls will now be placed temporarily in a government-run women’s shelter, after the judge said he did not believe they had converted by choice. However, the court has forbidden them to see either their parents, or their Muslim abductors.

The children are from the predominantly Muslim village of Chak 552/TDA, where 14 Christian families live alongside 158 Muslim ones. According to the Catholic Church’s National Commission on Justice and Peace (NCJP), Saba and Anila were abducted by three men from Chowk Munda, a small town in Tehsil Kot Aadoo, Muzaffargarh district. Local police reportedly refused to take any action, despite pleas for assistance from the girls’ parents and the local Christian community.

Both the NCJP and the Pakistan Catholic Women’s Organisation have appealed to the Chief Minister of Punjab for the children to be returned to their family. The NCJP alleges that the local Member of the Provincial Assembly, Mr Ehsan ul-Haq, is protecting the culprits, and the kidnappers have threatened the family with death if they persist in complaining.

CSW’s National Director Stuart Windsor said: “This is a tragic case and it is essential that the authorities intervene to secure the release of these two children and their safe return to their family. Their abduction, the local authorities’ lack of action, and an increase in similar abductions and forced conversions in recent months is creating a climate of terror and a culture of impunity which must be challenged. We call on the international community to raise this case with the Government of Pakistan as a matter of urgency.