In a heart-wrenching turn of events, a high court in Pakistan has stepped in to demand justice for two Christian sisters, just 13 and 18 years old, who were abducted, forcibly converted to Islam, and married off to their kidnappers. The family’s nightmare began on July 23 in the small village of Pattoki Tehsil, Kasur District. That night, as the family slept in their modest two-room home, Muhammad Zain and Muhammad Ali, along with unknown accomplices, broke in, locked the parents in their room, and abducted Neha and Saneha Javed.
Desperation filled the air as the family reported the kidnapping to the police, only to be met with silence and inaction. Days turned into weeks with no sign of their beloved daughters. The heartbreak deepened when, on July 29, they received horrifying images of Islamic conversion certificates and marriage documents. The world of this Catholic family crumbled further as they saw the name of their 13-year-old Neha falsely declared as 19, and Saneha, just 18, aged up to 21 on paper.
Finally, after weeks of agony, hope flickered as Lahore High Court Justice Muhammad Tariq Nadeem ordered the police chief to recover the girls. The court’s command was clear: Neha and Saneha must be rescued from the clutches of their abductors. Their family left powerless and ignored for so long, now clings to this thin thread of justice.
“The perpetrators lived right in our neighborhood, exploiting our daughters’ poverty and vulnerability just because of our Christian faith,” Shafique said. “It’s heartbreaking that the police, who should have been our protectors, turned their backs on us. They made no effort to find the girls, leaving us to face this nightmare alone. Now, with the court’s directive, there’s a sliver of hope that the Kasur District Police will finally take action.”
But the horror doesn’t end there. As is tragically common in such cases, the suspects’ relatives have shamelessly demanded that the family drop the case, pressuring them to forget their daughters’ fate. In a terrifying encounter, the girls’ father was viciously attacked with an axe when he confronted them, Sumera Bibi, the sisters’ heartbroken mother, revealed.
“They want us to stay silent, to accept this injustice, but how can we let them ruin our daughters’ lives?” Bibi said. “Neha is only 13, and her so-called husband is more than twice her age. How can anyone justify this?”
Her husband, already battling illnesses, is crumbling under the weight of their daughters’ abduction, each day taking a toll on his fragile health. “We begged the police to help us, but they refused to act. We had to become investigators ourselves, chasing every whisper of their whereabouts, traveling from city to city, sinking into debt just to have a chance to find them.”
With six other children to care for, the family is drowning in despair. Yet, through the anguish, a flicker of hope remains. “We haven’t seen our girls since that dreadful night,” Bibi whispered, tears in her eyes. “We are terrified for their safety. All we want is to have our daughters back, no matter what it takes.”