By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
ISLAMABAD (Worthy News) – Christians have urged “prayers for the safety of girls” in Pakistan after a Christian girl who was kidnapped last month, forced to convert to Islam, and marry one of her Muslim captors came to symbolize their suffering.
The 16-year-old girl was reportedly abducted from her parents’ home in the city of Jaranwala in the Faisalabad District of Punjab province by suspect named as Ghazaal Jutt, and and two armed accomplices Afzal Jutt and Ramzan Jutt.
She was kidnapped while her parents were out on September 12, Christians added.
Although her name was previously mentioned in the reporting, Worthy News usually does not identify victims of possible sexual abuse unless they choose to come forward publicly.
Neighbors reportedly saw the girl being forced into a van at gunpoint and driven away.
Although her parents reported the crime to the police immediately, any actions of response made by local officials have been delayed, according to investigators.
“Since the three abductors are reputed to be hostile towards Christians, the parents are not only concerned for her safety but also that of their other family members,” said the rights group Voice Of the Martyrs Canada (VOMC).
KNOWN PERPETRATORS
These same three men allegedly involved in her kidnapping “were known perpetrators” in the Jaranwala riots in August 2023 when a Muslim mob vandalized and destroyed over 20 churches and more than 80 Christian houses, Christians said.
On September 16, four days after the kidnapping, the family received a video message from the kidnapped girl via the social media message service WhatsApp in which she claimed to have “voluntarily” converted to Islam and married Ghazaal Jutt of her “own free will, Worthy News established.
“However, the teenage girl’s parents are convinced that their daughter was coerced into recording the video message. Additionally, her mother states that the young woman “detested Ghazaal,” for he and his friends had regularly harassed her,” VOMC told Wothy News.
Christians linked her conversion to Islam to a recently adopted law that makes it illegal for Christians in Pakistan to marry before the age of 18 was officially passed.
“One of the primary purposes of this bill is to prevent coercive marriages involving minors from taking place. However, this law is not applicable if a Christian minor converts to Islam prior to marriage,” VOMC said in an assessment.
A further provincial law, which will raise the age of marriage for all people in Punjab, is pending. “But until that law is passed, the legal age for Muslim girls remains at 16.”
Her kidnapping came amid broader concerns about the roughly 1,000 girls who are believed to be victims of forced conversions and marriages each year in Pakistan.
GIRLS SAFETY
VOMC said it had urged prayers “for the safety of girls” and women in Pakistan, especially the recently kidnapped girl.
“Please remember her in your prayers during the days to come, specifically interceding for her need of protection, strength, and comfort – physically, spiritually, and emotionally – as she deals with this terrible situation.”
They also urged prayers for the family as they “desperately seek legal justice on her behalf” in the Islamic nation. “May the Pakistani authorities work diligently to return this precious teenage girl to her concerned family and ensure the perpetrators responsible for committing these crimes are duly held accountable,” VOMC said.
News of her abduction came ahead of the annual global International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IODP) on Sunday, November 3, which will focus this year on Christian women.
“This year’s theme is Remember Her. While all followers of Jesus can suffer for their faith, the various forms of persecution that Christian women face often look different than those encountered by Christian men,” VOMC explained to Worthy News.
“For women and girls, persecution is often complex, hidden, and violent. It can be characterized by sexual violence and forced marriage, as well as by insidious, invisible abuse behind closed doors.”
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
Conservative politician Keiko Fujimori was officially declared the winner of Peru’s presidential election Friday, nearly a month after the June 7 runoff, ending weeks of uncertainty in the deeply polarized South American nation of about 34 million people.
U.S. President Donald J. Trump was to address a crowd on the National Mall, the tree-lined national park in downtown Washington seen as “America’s front yard,” to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday amid political controversy and a searing heat wave.
Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Friday that Russian forces had completed the capture of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, marking what Moscow described as a major milestone in the war, although Ukraine had not confirmed the claim and independent verification was not immediately possible.
Government delegations from China, Russia, India, Pakistan and Iraq arrived in Tehran on Friday, where the body of Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lay in state.
Moldovan Prime Minister Alexandru Munteanu announced Friday that he was stepping down, triggering the resignation of his government in the strategically located nation sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania that has been a European Union candidate country since November 2025.
At least 40 people were killed and eight others injured early Friday after a speeding, overcrowded passenger bus plunged about 20 meters (70 feet) into a rocky ravine in southwestern Pakistan, officials said.
Authorities say the main suspect in a Monaco bomb attack this week that seriously injured a Ukraine-born business tycoon, his partner, and their 13-year-old son is a Ukrainian woman living in Germany who disguised herself as a man.