Pakistan Court Returns Girl Described as 13 to Alleged Abductor, Drawing Rights Outcry

July 25 custody order puts a child's safety at the center of a legal dispute

A sessions court in Faisalabad, Pakistan, returned a girl described by her family and rights advocates as 13 to the man accused of abducting her on July 25, 2026. The court also granted him bail and reportedly accepted his claim that she was his wife, despite disputed age records and allegations that she had been pressured to present herself as an adult.

The girl, whose name has not been released, had previously been recovered by police and placed in protective accommodation. Human rights defenders and Christian advocacy groups condemned the decision, warning that returning her to the accused could expose her to renewed violence, intimidation and sexual abuse.

Punjab authorities are being urged to intervene, protect the girl and ensure that official birth records and other evidence are examined before any final custody decision. The dispute involves allegations of abduction, questions about the validity of conversion and marriage certificates, and claims that threats affected what the girl said in court.

The ruling came soon after Punjab adopted the Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Act 2026, which sets the minimum marriage age at 18. Rights advocates say the case tests whether those protections will be applied when an adult accused of kidnapping presents a child as a religious convert and a married woman.

As of July 30, the immediate demand from organizations supporting the family was to secure the girl's safety. Their wider concern was that conversion certificates, marriage documents and statements recorded in court could allow an alleged abduction to be presented as a voluntary marriage before the underlying accusations had been resolved.

From an alleged abduction to protective shelter

Mohsin Liaquat allegedly abducted the girl on June 12. Her family reported the incident at Raza Abad police station, where police registered a First Information Report under Section 365 B of the Pakistan Penal Code. That provision concerns kidnapping or abducting a woman for marriage or sexual exploitation.

A First Information Report records an alleged offense and provides the starting point for a police investigation. In this case, the complaint placed the girl's disappearance within a criminal inquiry, rather than simply a disagreement over whom she wished to marry.

Police arrested Liaquat about two weeks later and recovered the girl from his custody. She was initially placed under the protection of the Gender Based Violence Unit of the Faisalabad Police, then transferred to Dar ul Aman, a government shelter for women and girls at risk.

The main events in the Faisalabad case unfolded over roughly six weeks:

• June 12: Liaquat allegedly abducted the girl, and her family reported the incident to police.
• About two weeks later: Police arrested the accused, recovered the girl and placed her in protective care.
• June 27: According to rights defenders, the girl told the court that the accused man's family had coached and pressured her to say she was an adult.
• During the proceedings: The court ordered a medical examination to assess her age and directed that she remain at Dar ul Aman.
• July 25, 2026: The sessions court granted the accused bail and returned the girl to him as his purported wife.

Rights groups regarded the earlier shelter order as consistent with protecting a child while disputed evidence was examined. They said the later decision reversed that protection and placed her back under the influence of the person accused of taking her.

Why the age documents matter

The accused's side reportedly produced a religious conversion certificate and a marriage certificate listing the girl's date of birth as June 2008. That date would make her 18 by the July 25 ruling, while her family maintains that she is 13. The disagreement therefore goes directly to whether she was legally old enough to marry.

Her family disputes the June 2008 date and says it conflicts with family records, including the fact that her parents married in 2012. Activists also say official birth records and other documentary evidence support the family's position and were not given sufficient weight.

The court ordered a medical examination after encountering conflicting material about the girl's age. Rights advocates subsequently accused it of giving too much weight to conversion and marriage documents they allege were fabricated. The examination's findings and the evidence underlying the final custody decision were not detailed in the account of the case.

Ashiknaz Khokhar, a human rights activist, called for careful verification of documentary evidence in cases involving underage victims. He argued that a minor's statement or supposed consent cannot alone determine custody when threats, coercion or control may have shaped what the child said.

Lawyers and religious minority representatives want stronger procedures for checking birth registration, school records, national identity records and family documents. They say disputed papers should be examined through a transparent process, rather than accepted because they support an adult's claim.

Delayed or incomplete birth registration makes those checks especially difficult in some communities. Advocates say a missing certificate should not allow an adult to declare that a child is older. Their concern is that an incorrect age can change the way police and courts approach marriage, custody and allegations of abuse.

Alleged pressure inside and outside court

The girl's reported June 27 statement is central to the family's challenge. According to rights defenders, she said the accused man's relatives had coached and pressured her to claim adulthood. Advocates argue that safeguards are needed when a child speaks after being in an alleged abductor's custody or under his influence.

Joseph Janssen, president of Voice for Justice, also alleged that lawyers in court threatened the girl with punishment for apostasy if she rejected Islam. Apostasy means leaving or renouncing a religion. Janssen described the alleged threats as a serious misuse of legal and religious authority.

Janssen called on Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif to intervene over what he described as an injustice, statutory rape and the removal of a child from her parents. His appeal linked the custody decision to the criminal allegations and to the girl's ability to make decisions without intimidation.

Rights lawyers say a girl in these circumstances should be interviewed away from the accused and his supporters. They call for access to an independent lawyer, a guardian and psychological care, so that she can speak safely and receive support while the case proceeds.

The questions they want addressed first are whether she was abducted, whether she was legally old enough to marry, whether her conversion was free from coercion and whether her statements were made independently. For the family, the alleged pressure makes those questions inseparable from the decision about where she should live.

How conversion and marriage claims affect protection

Pakistan's legal system contains protections for children, women and religious minorities. Activists say enforcing them can become difficult when a girl reported as abducted is subsequently presented as a Muslim convert and a married woman.

A conversion claim may move a hearing's attention away from allegations of kidnapping, confinement and abuse. A girl may then be asked whether she wishes to stay with the man who took her, even when she may be a child and may have faced threats from him or his relatives.

Pakistan is a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The children's convention recognizes freedom of thought, conscience and religion, while requiring that the best interests of the child guide decisions affecting children. The covenant protects religious freedom and bars coercion in matters of belief.

Advocates say these guarantees require authorities to examine safety and coercion when an adult accused of abduction seeks custody through a conversion certificate or a vulnerable child's statement. They also reject physical puberty as a measure of the mental maturity needed for a valid marriage.

Lawyers and minority representatives are calling for legislation that expressly criminalizes coerced religious conversion. They also want the law to make clear that threats, confinement and manipulation prevent a child from giving valid consent to conversion or marriage.

Punjab's new law and the dispute over marital status

The Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Act 2026 sets the minimum marriage age at 18 and makes marriage involving a child a non bailable offense. It also directs courts to place children's best interests at the center of proceedings concerning marriage.

The Faisalabad court's decision to grant bail and recognize the accused as the girl's purported husband has sharpened concerns about how that legislation is being applied. Human rights activist Lala Robin Daniel said weak investigations and inconsistent court decisions were undermining the purpose of newer child protection laws.

Daniel argued that child marriage and sexual relations resulting from such a marriage must be treated as criminal matters, rather than protected by claims of marital status. His concern is that calling an accused man a husband can affect custody even while allegations of abduction and coercion remain unresolved.

Earlier cases have exposed a legal gap: a law can punish someone for marrying a child without automatically declaring the marriage invalid. Criminal liability concerns whether someone committed an offense; the validity of a marriage concerns whether the law recognizes the relationship. Those questions can produce different legal consequences.

Critics say that gap can allow an accused man to claim marital rights or custody while facing allegations that he abducted a girl and forced her into marriage. They want courts to place the child's welfare first, rather than let an alleged marriage determine custody before the criminal accusations have been examined.

Maria Shahbaz's case follows a separate court timeline

International concern also surrounds Maria Shahbaz, a Christian girl from Lahore who was reportedly 13 when she was abducted in July 2025, converted to Islam and married to a much older Muslim man. Legal advocacy reports identify him as Shehryar Ahmad, aged 30.

Shahbaz's case is separate from the Faisalabad proceedings. Pakistan's Federal Constitutional Court previously ruled that she could remain with the man. Her family argued that official records showed she was underage and that the marriage certificate was forged.

A review petition was scheduled for a July 24 hearing, with the family seeking a fresh examination of the evidence and her continued custody. The outcome of that scheduled hearing was not given. The hearing date belongs to Shahbaz's case, while the July 25 custody order concerns the unnamed girl in Faisalabad.

Lawyer Muhammad Saqib Jillani has argued that the main issue is whether a child below the legal marriage age can enter a valid marriage. He has also questioned whether a statement recorded under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code can establish voluntary consent where abduction and coercion are alleged.

Section 164 concerns statements recorded before a magistrate during criminal proceedings. Jillani's argument focuses on the child's age and the circumstances in which she spoke, rather than on whether an adult Christian woman may marry a Muslim man.

The two cases share disputes over age records, marriage documents and the freedom of a girl's statements. Each nevertheless has its own court proceedings, evidence and custody decisions.

European pressure and the scale recorded by advocates

The European Parliament's July 9 resolution cited Shahbaz's case and called on Pakistan to investigate allegations involving abducted and forcibly converted girls from religious minority communities. It urged authorities to provide victims with independent legal representation, psychological support and access to their families.

The resolution also called for a national mechanism to receive complaints from families whose daughters disappear or are allegedly converted against their will. Such a mechanism would give families a place to bring concerns beyond the immediate handling of an individual police complaint.

Voice for Justice reported 210 cases involving minor Christian girls allegedly abducted, forcibly converted, married and sexually abused between 2019 and 2025. It said 89 percent of those recorded cases occurred in Punjab, placing the province at the center of the pattern documented by the organization.

Advocacy groups have separately estimated that more than 1,000 underage girls are forced into conversion and marriage across Pakistan each year. That annual estimate covers a broader population than the 210 cases involving minor Christian girls recorded by Voice for Justice across seven years.

Precise figures are difficult to establish because families may face threats, social pressure or police inaction. Those barriers can affect whether an alleged abduction is reported and whether a family can continue seeking an investigation.

Families seek protection beyond the initial rescue

Families in other cases have reported that police refused to intervene after a girl escaped because the accused continued to claim she was his wife. Others have described threats after filing complaints or challenging allegedly forged marriage records.

Christian leaders and rights groups say minority families often lack the money and legal assistance needed to pursue appeals through several levels of court. Girls may also be isolated from relatives during proceedings, making it harder to speak freely or obtain counseling.

Father Lazar Aslam, director of the Capuchin Commission for Justice, Peace and Ecology, has described the pattern as a source of fear for religious minorities. He and other community representatives have called for the safe return of abducted girls and prosecution of people who use conversion as a cover for kidnapping.

Organizations seeking action say protection must continue after police recover a girl. Safe housing, medical treatment, psychological care, schooling and protection from retaliation are needed to help a victim rebuild her life. They warn that returning a child to an adult accused of abducting her defeats the purpose of rescue.

In Faisalabad, activists are asking the provincial government, police and higher courts to review the custody order, verify the girl's age through all available records, investigate alleged forged documents and examine claims of threats in court. Janssen has said he will raise the case with international bodies, including the United Nations and European Parliament, unless she is returned to her family.

Rights defenders also want a specialized procedure for cases involving minority girls, stronger police investigations, punishment for officials who ignore complaints and a distinct criminal offense of forced conversion. They say a credible review must examine religious belief separately from allegations of kidnapping and abuse, establish age through reliable records and assess statements without pressure from the accused or his family.

The immediate priority is the girl's safety, according to the organizations supporting her family. The broader test is whether strengthened child marriage rules and existing protections will secure the welfare of children regardless of religion, gender or family income.

Key Points

• A Faisalabad sessions court returned a girl described as 13 to alleged abductor Mohsin Liaquat on July 25, 2026, and granted him bail.
• Conversion and marriage documents listed a June 2008 birth date, which her family disputes.
• Rights defenders allege that the girl was pressured to claim adulthood and threatened in court over rejecting Islam.
• Punjab's 2026 child marriage law sets the minimum marriage age at 18 and makes marriage involving a child a non bailable offense.
• Maria Shahbaz's separate case was cited in the European Parliament's July 9 resolution calling for investigations and victim protection.
• Voice for Justice recorded 210 alleged cases involving minor Christian girls between 2019 and 2025, with 89 percent in Punjab.
• Advocates are seeking a custody review, verified age records, investigation of alleged coercion and continued protection for the girl.