PAKISTAN – Multan – October 27th, 2024 – Pakistani authorities arrested Shakeel Maish, the father of 13-year-old Roshni Shakeel, a young Christian girl who recently escaped captivity after being abducted.
Her father, who has been fighting to prosecute those responsible for her abduction, now faces a fabricated abduction case filed by the Multan police in Punjab. Reports indicate that he has suffered beatings and coercion by authorities to reveal his daughter’s whereabouts while being unjustly detained.
The Multan District and Sessions Court Judicial Magistrate, Farooq Latif, has issued a three-day physical remand for Shakeel Maish, Roshni’s father, placing him under police custody and enabling continued physical and mental abuse.
Roshni was abducted on March 13th, 2024, and despite her being clearly underage, local authorities, in collaboration with an Islamic Imam, facilitated her conversion to Islam, falsely registered her as 18, and renamed her Zehra Bibi.
This fraudulent marriage was accepted as consensual by officials, who then returned Roshni to her 28-year-old abductor, Muazzam Mazher.
In May 2024, Roshni managed to escape after overhearing her captor’s plans to sell her. During her captivity, she endured physical abuse and was coerced into signing documents against her will. Although now safely reunited with her family, her ordeal continues, with her father’s recent detention leaving her without his protection.
Nazia, Roshni’s mother, disclosed that her husband has been illegally detained by the police for three days, and instead of releasing him, the court has extended his remand by another three days. She accused the police and judiciary of protecting the very criminals who had abducted her daughter and intended to sell her.
On October 20th, 2024, rather than prosecuting the abductor, Multan police filed false charges against Roshni’s father for simply welcoming home his daughter, who had escaped child marriage, forced conversion, and sexual exploitation.
Minority rights activist and occasional contributor to the pages of EU Today, Joseph Jansen, condemned law enforcement’s actions, stating, “Child marriages and the sexual exploitation of underage girls from religious minorities are too often validated by the courts, which misuse religious law to keep victims with their abductors instead of reuniting them with their families. This systemic failure must be addressed to protect the rights and dignity of our most vulnerable children.”
Jansen stated, “It is time for the EU to hold Pakistan accountable to fully implement its human rights obligations under the GSP status. The protection of minority rights and the end of abuses against vulnerable children must be a priority, and the international community must demand real, actionable change.”
Mirjam Bos of Jubilee Campaign NL expressed her outrage, stating, “This is beyond terrible and breaks my heart,” recalling her recent visit with the family. “We are fully committed to providing legal aid to Shakeel until he and his daughter receive the justice they deserve.”
International experts, including UN representatives, have called on Pakistani authorities to enact and enforce laws that ensure marriage occurs only with the free and full consent of both parties. They advocate for raising the minimum marriage age to 18 and implementing stronger protections for children’s rights, a matter raised during Pakistan’s recent ICCPR review.
Human Rights Committee experts voiced alarm over the frequency of abductions, forced conversions, and marriages of religious minority girls, noting that many cases never reach court, and those that do often result in girls being returned to their captors.
