Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, including Faisal Mosque. (Fassifarooq, Creative Commons)

LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – A married Muslim abducted a 14-year-old girl on May 12, forcibly converted her to Islam and married her, exploiting her medical and mental health vulnerabilities to sexually abuse her, her father and his attorney said.

Abbas Masih, a daily wage laborer and member of a local Brethren church in Lahore’s Gulbahar Colony, said his daughter, Nisha Bibi, disappeared on May 12 while working as a domestic helper at a Muslim household.

“When Nisha did not return home from work, we went to her employer’s house, where we were told that she had already left,” Masih told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “After searching for her unsuccessfully, I contacted the police. CCTV footage obtained from the employer’s residence showed Nisha leaving with an unidentified middle-aged man, after which police registered a First Information Report [FIR] for abduction.”

Masih said the family independently tried to identify the suspect by circulating a screenshot taken from the CCTV footage among residents in the neighborhood where his daughter worked.

“A woman employed in a house opposite my daughter’s workplace immediately recognized the man as her 41-year-old husband, Arshad Habib,” he said. “She told us that Habib had disappeared the same day along with their two minor children without informing her.”

Masih said his daughter suffers from epilepsy and mental health challenges.

“My daughter’s medical condition made her an easy target,” he said. “We later learned that the accused had already been married three times and has children from those marriages.”

He said police later showed the family documents claiming Nisha had converted to Islam on Feb. 15 and married Habib three days later.

“We were shocked to see an alleged conversion certificate and marriage documents presented as proof that my daughter willingly converted and married the accused,” Masih said. “These documents appear to have been fabricated to shield him from criminal prosecution.”

He said fear of social stigma had prevented him from disclosing the crime even within his extended family.

“I have not even informed my relatives about what has happened because I fear it could negatively affect the future prospects of my two younger daughters,” he said.

The family’s lawyer, Lahore High Court attorney Zunara Patrick, said Habib had allegedly maintained multiple marriages simultaneously without the knowledge of his spouses.

“One of Habib’s wives has already divorced him, while the other two are now cooperating with us after discovering the truth about him,” Patrick told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.

Patrick said the legal team had traced Habib to Khanpur in Rahim Yar Khan District in southern Punjab, where he was allegedly staying with Nisha and two children he had taken from his third wife.

“As part of our legal strategy, I filed a habeas corpus petition on behalf of his third wife seeking recovery of her two children,” Patrick said. “We have also formally nominated Habib as the principal suspect in Nisha’s abduction case through a supplementary police statement and are coordinating with authorities for his arrest.”

Habib also allegedly prepared fraudulent legal documents in collaboration with some lawyers in an attempt to mislead investigators, Patrick said.

“A statement purportedly submitted before a magistrate in Lahore on March 2 claims that Nisha is 18 years old, converted to Islam voluntarily and married Habib of her own free will,” Patrick said. “The document further alleges that she sought protection from her family on the grounds that they were threatening her.”

Patrick rejected the authenticity of the statement and accused Habib of exploiting religion to evade accountability.

“These actions indicate a deliberate pattern of targeting vulnerable young women for sexual exploitation,” she said. “In this case, the accused appears to have used religious conversion and marriage as a cover to avoid prosecution. We are determined to recover the child and pursue all applicable criminal charges, including offenses related to child marriage, rape of a minor and abduction.”

Nisha’s case is seen as another test for Pakistani courts, which have failed to recognize the authority of official birth records in cases involving alleged forced conversions and marriages of minority girls. Pakistan’s Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) On May 6 questioned the reliability of records issued by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) during proceedings involving a 15-year-old Christian girl allegedly forced to convert to Islam.

During the hearing, one judge remarked that NADRA records could not automatically be treated as conclusive proof of age because such documents could potentially be manipulated.

The court has raised similar concerns in previous cases. In a controversial Feb. 3 ruling, the FCC upheld the marriage of 13-year-old Christian girl Maria Shahbaz to a 30-year-old Muslim man, despite allegations by her family that she had been abducted and forcibly converted. In its detailed judgment issued on March 25, the court questioned the reliability of NADRA and union council records, citing inconsistencies in documentation and testimony related to the girl’s age.

Pakistan ranked eighth on Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List of the 50 countries where Christians face the most severe persecution.

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