First kidnapped on March 11, 2024, in Sindh Province, Pakistan, Muskan Salman had escaped on Dec. 15. (Christian Daily International-Morning Star News)

LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – A Muslim in Pakistan who kidnapped and forcibly converted a Christian girl who later escaped has abducted her again, her father said.

Salman Masih said that Arsalan Ali again kidnapped his 15-year-old daughter, Muskan Salman, as the family visited their remote hometown, Tando Ghulam Ali in Badin District, Sindh Province, on Feb. 18 to attend the funeral of a close relative.

Muskan had escaped from Ali on Dec. 15 and was coerced into a false marriage.

Masih, a Catholic, said that Muskan was home with her 10-year-old cousin while all other members of the family had gone to the funeral when Ali and an unidentified accomplice broke in and took her away at gunpoint.

“When we returned home, we saw that my niece was crying in the courtyard while Muskan was missing,” Masih told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “The child told us that she and Muskan were playing when the two men forced their way into the house and took Muskan with them.”

Masih said that he immediately informed police and tried to get an abduction case registered against Ali, but officers refused to register his complaint.

“It’s been over 10 days since Muskan was taken, but the police are not taking any action,” he said. “Ali is also missing, and we have no information about their whereabouts.”

The family was making efforts to find Muskan without result, he added.

“I made a grave mistake by taking Muskan to our hometown for the funeral without consulting our lawyer,” Masih said. “I thought that we would discreetly attend the funeral, commiserate with the bereaved family and return to Karachi the next day without Ali getting any information about our presence there. But I was wrong.”

Ali had been threatening the family and demanding that Muskan be returned to him as his “legally-wedded wife,” according to Masih.

“We are very concerned for our daughter’s safety, and the police’s indifference to our plight is exacerbating our fears that we may not be able to see her again,” he said, appealing to the provincial government and senior police officials to intervene.

Muskan was first abducted from her home on March 11, 2024. The Masih family had filed a First Information Report accusing Ali of kidnapping, but Muskan was coerced into declaring that she was 19 years old and that she had converted to Islam and married Ali of her own free will, her family learned. In Sindh Province, the legal marriage age for both genders is 18.

Ali, estimated to be between 25 and 27 years old, forcibly converted Muskan to Islam and forged a marriage certificate as legal cover for the crime, Masih said. She escaped on Dec. 15 and reunited with her family. A Christian attorney in Karachi, Luke Victor, helped the family flee from their hometown to Karachi, where Muskan was kept in a safe-house to protect her from her so-called husband.

Victor said that in her written statement to the court on Dec. 16, Muskan had categorically denied that she converted to Islam and denied she willingly married Ali. The court had allowed her to stay with her parents till Badin police investigated the case anew to determine her age and ascertain if it warranted legal action under the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act 2014, he said.

“It’s very unfortunate that the Masih family took Muskan to Tando Ghulam Ali without informing us,” he said. “We put in a lot of effort, legal and otherwise, to save the girl, but now we are back to from where we started.”

Pakistan ranked eighth on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the most difficult places to be a Christian, as it was the previous year.

If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit https://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved.  

If you or your organization would like to help enable Morning Star News to continue raising awareness of persecuted Christians worldwide with original-content reporting, please consider collaborating at https://morningstarnews.org/donate/?

###

© 2025 Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. Articles/photos may be reprinted with credit to Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. https://morningstarnews.org 

Tweet: https://twitter.com/morningstarnewz/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MorningStarNews

Morning Star News is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation that relies solely on contributions to offer original news reports of persecuted Christians. By providing reliable news on the suffering church, Morning Star News’ mission is to empower those in the free world to help and to encourage persecuted Christians that they are not forgotten or alone. For free subscription, contact [email protected]; to make tax-deductible donations, visit https://morningstarnews.org/donate/? or send check to Morning Star News, 34281 Doheny Park Rd., # 7022, Capistrano Beach, CA 92624, USA.