Sixteen-year-old Muskaan, a Christian girl from Sindh, was kidnapped, raped, and forcibly converted to Islam. After nine months in captivity, she escaped

Naeem Sahoutara

Sixteen-year-old Muskaan bursts into cheerful laughter, as she sings hymns during a Christmas party in a shelter home in Karachi.

The Catholic Christian teenager, whose name literally means a smile, says she had almost lost the very hope that she would ever get back her innocent adolescence smiles again.

Her smiling face quickly turns pale as she recalls the events of the past nine months: her kidnapping, continuous physical torture and sexual abuse, forced conversion of her Christian faith to Islam, and her purported marriage to a Muslim man.

“I was very sad, as I went through mental and physical pain every single day, I spent in captivity of that man who falsely claimed to be my husband”, Muskan tells The Friday Times.

“I would cry and ask him to let me go to my parents, but he would not listen,” adds the teenager beginning to share her ordeal, with the signs of fear now becoming visible on her face.

Muskaan says a Muslim man Arsalan Khaskheli, whom she had never acquainted with, kidnapped her from her house in Badin district on March 11 this year.

“For some days Arsalan kept chasing me on my way from and to school. Then, one day he along with others kidnapped me, blindfolded me, and drove away in a car,” she later told the police.

“Once at his house, I kept begging him to let me go to my parents, but he started beating me up mercilessly”, she added.

But the worst was yet to come, she discloses as she speaks again after taking a deep sigh.

“The accused Arsalan Khaskheli subjected me to rape the very same day. As I begged him not to do this, he took out a gun and threatened to kill my brothers and parents”, she told the Tando Ghulam Ali police.

At just sixteen, this teenager says she braved this sexual torture every day for nine months.

The kidnappings of young women belonging to the Christian and Hindu faiths across the country, particularly in Punjab and Sindh provinces, are meant for some other purpose: forced conversion of their religion

“Ever since he would sexually abuse me. I would not like it and ask him not to do this, but every time we would pull out a gun and threaten to kill my family, if I refused to obey the demand,” she adds, embarrassingly looking at the ground.

While kidnappings of women for sexual exploitation aren’t new in the country, the kidnappings of young women belonging to the Christian and Hindu faiths across the country, particularly in Punjab and Sindh provinces, are meant for some other purpose: forced conversion of their religion.

Muskan, who appears to be the latest victim of such forced conversions taking place frequently, disclosed to the Tando Ghulam Ali police that her kidnapper Arsalan Khaskheli forcibly converted her religion.

“The next day they physically tortured me and asked me to make a false statement before a Muslim cleric: that I am 19 years old, I have converted my religion to Islam of my own choice and I want to marry Arsalan out of my free will.” she disclosed to the police.

“However, I told the Moulvi (cleric) clearly that I am 16. I am Christian and will remain Christian. I also told the Moulvi (cleric) that neither I want to embrace Islam as my new religion nor I want to marry Arsalan”, she told TFT.

She alleges that the cleric too was complicit in this whole drama created by the accused Arsalan along with his mother Azizah, his maternal grandfather Muhammad Hasan, maternal uncle Inayat, and Jameel, a cousin of Khaskheli.

“Despite my answers, the Moulvi (cleric) forcibly took my thumb impression and signatures on the certificates of conversion of religion and marriage”, she added.

After the cleric, the teenager says she was taken to the court, where she was presented with her new Muslim name, Fatima.

To legalise their offensive acts, the accused persons took Muskan to a local court, where Muskan says she was once again forced to make another statement under duress and pressure.

“Before taking me to the court, Khaskheli and others threatened to kill my brothers and parents if I did not tell the judge that I am 19 years old and had not only converted to Islam but also that I had married Khaskheli of my own free choice to be my Muslim husband”, she said.

“I was very scared because they had guns and had threatened to kill my brothers and parents, so I made a statement before the judge as I was asked by them”, she later told the police.

Ever since, Muskan says, she was in illegal custody of the accused Arsalan, who did not allow her to meet with her family.

There could be hundreds of women belonging to the Christian, Hindu, and other religious minorities, who have been kidnapped under a country-wide campaign by influential Muslim clerics to forcibly convert the religion of these women to Islam against their wish

After months, however, the teenager managed to escape from the clutches of her purported husband on December 15 this year.

Muskan seems to be fortunate enough to make an escape and reunite with her family, but the rights activists say hundreds of other young girls from Hindu and Christian religious minorities are still going through the same ordeal.

Rights activist, Luke Victor, who is handling the case on behalf of Muskan’s parents for a legal action against her kidnappers, claims that they have provided shelter to nine teenage girls – seven of them Christians, one each Hindu and Sikh – in the recent months.

“There could be hundreds of women belonging to the Christian, Hindu, and other religious minorities, who have been kidnapped under a country-wide campaign by influential Muslim clerics to forcibly convert the religion of these women to Islam against their wish.

Even for this purpose, Mr. Victor says, inhuman practices such as kidnapping, rape, and physical torture are being used by these radical Islamist groups to achieve their “religious” goals.

Hindus population is around 4.9 million – according to the 2023 census – in Sindh, which is home to the largest population of this religious minority.

Christian population in Sindh, is 546,968, which is 0.98% of the province’s total population, according to the census.

Muslim clerics Mian Mithu and Ayub Jan Sarhandi’s patronage forced conversions

Advocate Victor says a Umerkot-based cleric Ayub Jan Sarhandi is directly involved in the incident of kidnapping and forced conversion of Muskan, like numerous other incidents reported from that region of Sindh province.

“We have credible information that Moulana Ayub Jan Sarhandi has patronized illegal forced conversion and underage marriage of my clients’ daughter”, he claimed, adding that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

The rights groups have named the chief of the Barchundi Sharif shrine Moulana Abdul Haq alias Mian Mithu (in Ghotki) and Ayub Jan Sarhandi (in Umerkot) for spearheading such campaigns aimed at kidnappings and forced conversions of young girls and women of the Hindu, Christian and other religious minorities.

Both the clerics Mian Mithu and Sarhandi, who are prominent in Sindh with connections in Punjab as well, have on occasions denied the allegations of being involved in forced conversions and underage marriages. However, the rights groups’ fact findings refuted their claims.

Legal loopholes

The rights groups – including the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) of the Catholic Bishops Commission of Pakistan – have long been struggling to get a separate law passed and enforced that should criminalize the act of forced conversions as well.

They argue that while acts of kidnapping, rape, and criminal intimidation are offenses punishable with certain sentences under the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), a separate law is needed to give tooth to the police to specifically deal with offences of forced conversions.

Therefore, in 2016 the Sindh Assembly had unanimously passed a bill against forced conversions. But this much-awaited bill has yet to be signed into law due to pressure by some religious quarters, say the rights activists.

“Because there is continuous pressure from the religious groups, the Pakistan Peoples Party’s government had been unable to touch this bill again despite the lapse of around eight years. So, we do not know how long this will take the government to enact the proposed law,” says Mr. Victor.

In 2022, the British government banned the cleric Moulana Abdul Haq alias Mian Mithu from entering the UK because of his involvement in forced marriages and forced conversion of people, including minors, from the Hindu religious minority in Sindh.

On the other hand, the Pakistani government seems least bothered to take action against such clerics and their groups.