Diya Iftikhar (3rd from left) with parents and attorneys after her recovery. (Christians True Spirit)

LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – A court in Pakistan on Friday (Oct. 25) returned custody of a 16-year-old Christian girl to her parents after a Muslim had kidnapped and forcibly converted/married her, sources said.

Diya Iftikhar was abducted from her home in village Chak No. 126-GB Sheroana in Jaranwala, Faisalabad District, Punjab Province, by Ghazaal Jutt and two accomplices, Afzal Jutt and Ramzan Jutt, on Sept. 12, according to her parents. Additional Sessions Judge Jaranwala Azhar Iqbal Ranjha today granted the petition for recovery of custody filed by the girl’s mother, Shahida Iftikhar.

“Diya Iftikhar was targeted by Ghazaal Jutt because of his hatred against Jaranwala’s Christian community,” said Asher Sarfraz, chief executive of Christians True Spirit (CTS), which provided legal support to the victim’s family. “The girl was abducted against her will and coerced on gunpoint to record a statement claiming that her conversion to Islam and marriage to Jutt were voluntary.”

Sarfraz said CTS had filed a habeas corpus petition in the Lahore High Court for Diya’s recovery, which the court had dismissed on Oct. 10 due to a misleading statement by Diya under pressure of her captor.

“It was clear that Diya was suffering from abuse and violence at the hands of her abductors, who were using marriage and conversion as a means of self-protection,” Sarfraz told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.

CTS then submitted another habeas corpus petition in the Jaranwala Sessions Court on Thursday (Oct. 24), he said.

“The judge noticed Diya’s fear and anxiety and ordered all persons present to vacate the courtroom so that the girl could freely record her statement,” he said. “Once Diya felt secure, she told the court that she had been converted and married against her will and wished to return to her parents’ house. Hearing this, the court handed her custody to her parents.”

Police later escorted the girl and her parents from the court as there were fears that the suspects and his relatives could attack them, Sarfraz said.

“Diya is one of the few girls who gather the courage to expose their abductors in court, otherwise a majority of the victims are too intimidated and fearful to speak against their oppressors,” he said. “We also appreciate Judge Ranjha for making the courtroom safe for Diya so that she could speak freely. If other victims are also provided with a similar environment in courts, they too can return to their families without fear.”

Sarfraz said they were considering moving Diya to a safe house.

“The accused lives in the same village, and it will not be safe for Diya to return to her home so soon,” he said. “We are also very concerned about the psychological and physical trauma the child has suffered her over a month-long ordeal, and we think she needs counsellor support.”

Iftikhar lauded CTS for the legal support and Christian Daily International-Morning Star News for raising the family’s voice over her daughter’s ordeal.

“My husband and I are truly grateful for the efforts made for Diya,” Iftikhar said. “She is very happy to be back with her family. She has endured a lot of suffering, but we have faith that God’s grace will help her in recovering and leading a normal life again.”

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.”

Recorded cases of abduction and forced conversion numbered 136 in 2023, the highest annual total ever, according to the Center for Social Justice. Among these, 110 Hindu girls were abducted in Sindh Province and 26 Christian girls in Punjab Province. A majority of incidents took place in Sindh, where 77 percent of the abducted females were minors under the age of 18, according to the center.

Unofficial sources suggest that forced religious conversions linked to forced marriages affect as many as 1,000 girls belonging to religious minorities annually.

Church leaders and rights activists say it is imperative for Pakistan to address cases of forced marriage and forced religious conversion promptly, fairly and objectively, guarantee protection for the rights of the victims and ensure prosecution of perpetrators.

Pakistan ranked seventh on Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List of the most difficult places to be a Christian, as it was the previous year.

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