One example is 10-year-old Christian girl Laiba Suhail, who was abducted from her home in the middle of the night in Faisalabad District on February 12, 2024 by four men at the behest of a Muslim, Shaukat Shah. A month after the kidnapping, authorities have refused to prosecute the alleged perpetrator, says her father, Suhail Masih.
Laiba's Christian parents fear that she could be sold to sex traffickers, according to Morning Star News.
Laiba claims to have converted of his own free will
"On February 15, the police informed us that Laiba had filed an application with a judge claiming that she had converted to Islam of her own free will 'after being impressed by Islamic teachings'," Masih said. "We immediately went to the court where we saw our minor daughter surrounded by several policemen. We were not allowed to talk to her despite our repeated requests. The police later presented her to the judge, where she allegedly repeated the content of the application. She also tried to be sent to Dar Ul Aman [women's shelter], which the judge accepted."
The family watched helplessly as Shah and the police took his daughter to the shelter.
"We couldn't do anything after Laiba's statement in court, which I believe was coerced," he said. "We were not given the opportunity to ask her under what circumstances she was forced to make this statement."
Masih questioned how a 10-year-old girl could voluntarily convert to Islam when she didn't even have a basic education or a religious education. "It's a blatant lie that my daughter has changed her faith voluntarily," he says. "What little religious education she has is from church Sunday school. She hasn't had anything to do with Muslims because she used to stay home all day to take care of her mom and me."
Masih also adds that he has been told that Shah has taken her away from the shelter again.
Victims' families are often illiterate and poor
"This is Shah's modus operandi," says Masih. "No one knows what happens to his victims after they are handed over to him. We fear that he and his accomplices are involved in sex trafficking and that they sell these underage girls when they see that the families are unable to pursue the case further in court."
A Pakistani Christian lawyer Sumera Shafique says she has found several similar cases. She says the victims' families are often illiterate and poor because the perpetrators know that the families are unable to pursue the case further.
Read also: Christian girls are kidnapped, forced to marry and forcibly converted to Islam
The 55-year-old father Masih is paralyzed in both legs and neither he nor his wife are able to work due to health problems. He says his eldest son, who is 25 years old, is a day laborer and the family's sole breadwinner. Laiba is the youngest of his three children and was born 12 years after his second child. "I had to take Laiba out of school early because we couldn't afford to give her an education due to our limited financial resources," he says.
The Danish European Mission is developing a school project in northwest Pakistan, where girls like Laiba can receive free education at a Christian independent school. It costs 1040 DKK to ensure that a child from a poor and persecuted Christian family can attend school.
