Jameel Masih, forcibly transformed to Islam in Pakistan in February 2026, in Islamic apparel in TikTok video. (Screenshot Christian Every day Worldwide-Morning Star Information)
LAHORE, Pakistan (Morning Star Information) – A Muslim landowner in Pakistan forcibly transformed to Islam a 14-year-old Christian worker and is holding him in unlawful custody, sources stated.
Sharif Masih, a each day wage laborer and member of the New Apostolic Church in Pancho Baig Kotla village, Sheikhupura District in Punjab Province, stated poverty compelled him to ship his son, Jameel Masih, to work on the cattle shed of native landlord Muhammad Boota Bajwa about 5 years in the past.
As a substitute of a month-to-month wage, Bajwa agreed to offer the household with 5 maunds of wheat (round 200 kilograms) yearly, valued at roughly 16,000 Pakistani rupees ($58), Masih stated. The association allowed the household to go to Jameel as soon as a month and infrequently carry him house in a single day.
On Feb. 22 Masih and his spouse, Nazia, went to Bajwa’s residence to see their son however had been denied entry, he stated.
“Bajwa informed us that Jameel didn’t need to meet us,” Masih stated. “Once we raised our voices, some native Muslim elders intervened and compelled him at hand Jameel over to us.”
Shortly after the household returned house with Jameel, Bajwa arrived with two armed males.
“They attacked me and my spouse and forcibly snatched Jameel from us,” Masih stated. “Our pleas for mercy fell on deaf ears.”
Since then, the household has been unable to see their son and has confronted threats when making an attempt to inquire about him, he stated.
Masih added that the household not too long ago got here throughout a TikTok video during which Jameel appeared carrying an Islamic cap with an Muslim hymn taking part in within the background. Native residents knowledgeable them that Jameel had transformed to Islam, he stated.
With help from Christian advocacy group HARDS Pakistan, Masih has submitted a written grievance to the Farooqabad Saddar Police Station in search of his son’s restoration and the arrest of these allegedly concerned.
Sohail Habil, chief government of HARDS Pakistan, stated that if police did not register an FIR, the group will file a writ petition earlier than the Lahore Excessive Court docket in search of the kid’s restoration.
“The Masih household has been subjected to excessive injustice,” Habil stated. “We’re dedicated to making sure that Jameel is rescued from unlawful confinement and that these accountable are prosecuted underneath the regulation.”
Rights activist Napolean Qayyum stated the alleged pressured conversion might be linked to bonded labor practices.
“In lots of circumstances, weak minority kids are transformed and separated from their households to make sure everlasting management over them,” he informed Christian Every day Worldwide-Morning Star Information. “Pakistan nonetheless lacks a federal regulation particularly criminalizing pressured spiritual conversions, significantly of minors.”
Qayyum urged police authorities to register fees underneath related sections of the Pakistan Penal Code referring to kidnapping, wrongful confinement, assault and legal intimidation, in addition to underneath youngster labor and bonded labor statutes.
Allegations of pressured conversions of Christian and Hindu minors have surfaced repeatedly in Pakistan, significantly in Punjab and Sindh provinces. Rights teams, together with the Human Rights Fee of Pakistan (HRCP), have documented circumstances during which underage ladies from minority communities had been kidnapped, transformed and married, usually after questionable age determinations.
In 2021, Pakistan’s parliament declined to advance a invoice that sought to criminalize pressured conversions after opposition from spiritual events and the Council of Islamic Ideology.
Pakistan’s structure ensures freedom of faith, and current legal legal guidelines prohibit kidnapping, pressured marriage and bonded labor. The nation enacted the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act in 1992, formally outlawing debt bondage. Nonetheless, implementation has been extensively criticized as weak, significantly in rural agricultural settings the place impoverished households usually rely upon landlords for subsistence.
Christians, who make up roughly 1.37 % of Pakistan’s inhabitants, in accordance with the 2023 nationwide census, are disproportionately represented amongst low-income laborers. Advocacy teams say financial vulnerability will increase the danger of exploitation, together with youngster labor and coercion.
Pakistan, the place greater than 96 % of the inhabitants is Muslim, ranks eighth on the Open Doorways’ 2026 World Watch Record of the 50 nations the place it’s most tough to be a Christian.
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