Gulzar Masih and wife Sumera say their 12-year-old daughter Ariha was abducted by a Muslim neighbor. (Joseph Janssen for Christian Daily International-Morning Star News)

LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Three Muslims in Pakistan abducted a 12-year-old Christian girl at gunpoint from her home and have threatened to sell her into sexual slavery, her parents said.

Sumera Gulzar, a Catholic resident of Chak 55/2L village in Okara District, Punjab Province, said that her daughter, Ariha, was abducted on Jan. 20 by Sajjad Baloch, a 40-year-old neighbor also known as Saajhu Baloch, and two accomplices after they forced their way into their home.

Gulzar said she tried to stop the kidnappers, but they forcibly took Ariha away in a white car.

“I immediately contacted Baloch’s family, and they asked me to give them two to three days to recover my daughter from his custody,” Gulzar told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “The next day I received a phone call from Baloch in which he threatened to rape Ariha and to sell her to sex traffickers if we pursued the matter.”

The family again pleaded with Baloch’s family to persuade him to return Ariha, but to no avail. On Jan. 24 they were shocked to learn that Baloch’s family had disappeared after locking their home, compelling her to seek police help.

The girl’s father, Gulzar Masih, said they lacked the financial resources to prosecute – financial constraints forced them to take Ariha out of school last year – even though Baloch has a criminal reputation in the community.

“Baloch is a known criminal of our area while we are very poor and weak people,” Masih told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “We didn’t have the resources to bribe the police or go to court, so we tried to recover Ariha through Baloch’s family.”

After more than a week since contacting police, officers have failed to find her, he said.

“We visit the police station every day with the hope that we will get some information about our child, but so far there’s no breakthrough,” Masih said.

Appealing to senior police officials and the Punjab government for his daughter’s recovery, Masih expressed concern that Ariha could become a victim of sexual exploitation through forced conversion to Islam and involuntary marriage to a man triple her age.

“Baloch may also sell Ariha to sex traffickers if the police don’t act fast and recover her,” he said. “I appeal the government to ensure my daughter’s protection and safe recovery as well as stern punishment for all those who have violated her.”

Joseph Janssen, field officer of advocacy organization Jubilee Campaign, said the family’s initial hesitation to inform police stemmed from a lack of faith in the justice system, compounded by widespread poverty, discrimination and general neglect by local authorities.

“We are committed to supporting the family in their pursuit for justice and recovery of their minor child,” he said, adding that the group was providing legal aid to the family.

Janssen highlighted the disturbing pattern of abduction or seduction and forced conversion/marriage of girls from minority religious communities in 96-percent Muslim Pakistan.

“Whether the girl was abducted or went willingly, these are unequal relationships where we see time and again that the minor Christians girls end up being severally abused and possibly even trafficked,” Janssen told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News told Christian Daily International-Morning Star New. “These practices subject the girls to severe physical and psychological trauma.”

The absence of effective legal protections and the culture of impunity for perpetrators exacerbate the vulnerability of these girls and women, he added.

“Pakistan must meet its international obligations to combat discriminatory practices against girls and women, ensuring their safety and dignity,” he said, calling on the government to enact and enforce laws to criminalize child marriage and coerced religious conversions and ensure prosecution.

No Progress on Legislation

A bill criminalizing child marriages has been pending in the Punjab Assembly since April. The bill seeks to increase the legal age for marriage for both boys and girls to 18 years in Punjab.

Pending approval of the bill, the minimum age for girls to marry is still 16. Nationally, the Christian Marriage (Amendment) Act 2024 set the marriageable age at 18 only for Christians; if they convert to Islam, girls considered Muslims come under sharia (Islamic law), which allows them to marry younger.

Typically, kidnapped girls in Pakistan, some as young as 10, are abducted, forced to convert to Islam and raped under cover of Islamic “marriages” and are then pressured to record false statements in favor of the kidnappers, rights advocates say. Judges routinely ignore documentary evidence related to the children’s ages, handing them back to kidnappers as their “legal wives.”

Pakistan ranked eighth on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the most difficult places to be a Christian.

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