Muridke railway station, Sheikhupura District, Pakistan. (Fahads1982, Creative Commons)
LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – A Christian girl who this month escaped the Muslim who kidnapped her said he forcibly converted her to Islam and repeatedly sexually assaulted her as his “wife.”
Muskan Liaqat was 14 years old when she was kidnapped at gunpoint from her home in Muridke, Sheikhupura District, by Muhammad Adnan and his father Muhammad Arif the night of May 24, 2023 as her family slept, she said.
“They took me to their home, where they tortured me and forcibly took my thumb impressions on some papers – I was later told that I had become a Muslim and Adnan was my husband,” Muskan told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
A member of the Salvation Army church, Muskan said she was treated as a sex slave.
“I was raped and beaten by Adnan with an iron rod on almost a daily basis,” she said. “He used to call me ‘Chuhri’ [a pejorative term used for Christians] and other curse words. As a result of repeated sexual abuse, I got pregnant in 2024.”
Severe torture by Adnan resulted in a miscarriage in the fourth month of her pregnancy, she said.
“I used to cry all night and prayed to God to rescue me from this hell, but it looked like my prayers were not reaching Him…”
The trauma led her to attempt suicide by cutting her wrist, she said.
“I wanted to kill myself as it seemed the only way out of the agony that I was suffering every day,” Muskan said. “I would also question myself, ‘Would my family accept me even if I somehow manage to escape and return home? Would they believe me that I had not gone with Adnan willingly?’ These thoughts haunted me all the time, forcing me to think that ending my life was the only option.”
On May 26, it seemed her prayers were finally answered when Muskan found a chance to make a phone call to her older sister, informing her about her location and the names of her captors. But her hope of rescue proved short-lived.
“When Adnan and his father came to know that my family had approached the court for my recovery, they threatened to kill me and my family members if I gave a statement against them,” she said. “They told me to tell the court that I had converted to Islam and married Adnan of my free will. I succumbed to their pressure though my heart and soul yearned to be with my parents and siblings.”
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.”
The family’s attempt to rescue Muskan through legal action led to more merciless beatings. Using an iron rod, Adnan fractured her left arm and caused other multiple injuries, she said.
Muskan’s prayers were finally answered on June 3, when Adnan left her unguarded at his house, enabling her to escape.
“I’m truly grateful to God for rescuing me from captivity and to my family for trusting me that I had not gone with Adnan willingly,” she said.
Fearing Adnan could again take custody of his daughter on the basis of the fake marriage, Liaqat Masih sought help from Christians’ True Spirit (CTS), a paralegal organization that also runs a shelter for Christian women and girls. CTS Executive Director Katherine Sapna said Muskan’s parents had made repeated attempts to file an abduction case when their daughter went missing from their home in 2023.
“The local police did not entertain their application, and the poor family was forced to search for their daughter on their own, albeit with no success,” Sapna told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
After Muskan’s call to her sister on May 26, the family reached out to CTS for legal assistance.
“We immediately filed a habeas corpus petition for the recovery of the minor girl and the court directed the local police to produce her in court,” Sapna said. “We were disappointed when Muskan gave a statement in favor of the accused before the judge, but we also understood that she was forced to do so under duress.”
When Masih informed CTS that Muskan had escaped from Adnan’s house but was at serious risk of being taken back, the group immediately relocated her to its safe house for her protection, Sapna said.
“The girl has suffered severe mental and physical trauma in her two-year captivity,” she said. “It will take her time to heal and recover, but we have faith that the Lord will restore her fully.”
The CTS legal team has launched criminal proceedings against Adnan and will leave no stone unturned to ensure justice for Muskan, Sapna said.
“We will ensure that Adnan and his accomplices are effectively prosecuted and punished for kidnapping Muskan, subjecting her to sexual and physical violence and covering their crime with false religious conversion and marriage,” she vowed.
Masih had worked as a mason, but after his daughter’s abduction he fell ill and has been unable to work, Sapna said.
“The family is barely able to meet both ends, so we have taken it upon ourselves to provide them with legal aid as well as medical and psychological treatment of their daughter,” she said.
Pakistan, whose population is 96 percent Muslim, ranked eighth on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the most difficult places to be a Christian.
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- Muridke railway station, Sheikhupura District, Pakistan. (Fahads1982, Creative Commons)
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