A Christian girl who escaped the Muslims who lured her this month said he forced her to convert to Islam and repeatedly sexually assaulted her as “wife.”
Mascan Leakat was 14 years old when his family slept on the night of May 24, 2023 when he was lured at the muzzle from his home in Malidke in Sheikhpura district by Muhammad Adnan and his father Muhammad Arif.
“They took me home, where they tortured me and forced me to be impressed with the thumbs in some papers. Later I became a Muslim and was told that Adnan was my husband.”
Muskan, a member of the Salvation Army Church, said she was treated as a sexual slave.
“I was raped and beaten by Adnan on an iron bar almost every day,” she said. “He called me ‘churi’ (a light-jour term used by Christians) and other cursed words. After repeated sexual abuse, I became pregnant in 2024. ”
She said the intense torture by Adnan led to a miscarriage during the fourth month of her pregnancy.
“I was crying all night, praying to God to save me from this hell, but it seemed my prayers hadn’t reached him…”
Trauma led her to cut her wrist and attempt suicide, she said.
“I wanted to commit suicide because it seemed like the only way I could get out of the pain I suffered every day,” Muscan said. “I also question myself: “If I could somehow get away and go home, will my family accept me? These thoughts always bother me, and forced me to think that ending my life was my only option.”
On May 26th, when Muscan found an opportunity to call her sister and inform her of her location and the name of the prisoner, it seemed her prayers were finally answered. However, her hopes for rescue proved short-lived.
“When Adnan and his father learned that my family had approached the court to recover, they threatened to kill me and my family if I issued a statement against them,” she said. “They told me to tell the court that I had converted to Islam and married a free-willed Adnan. My heart and soul were eager to be with my parents and siblings, but I succumbed to their pressure.”
Usually, a tempted girl in Pakistan is accused of young people as young as 10 years old, converted to Islam, raped under a hidden gem of Islamic “marriage” and pressured to record false statements in favour of the temptator, rights advocates say. The judge routinely ignores documentary evidence related to the age of a child and returns the temptation to the temptation as a “legal wife.”
The family’s attempts to save Muskan through legal action led to a more merciless be-hit. Using an iron rod, Adnan broke his left arm, causing multiple other injuries, she said.
Mascan’s prayers were finally answered on June 3rd, and Adnan was able to leave her vulnerable in his house and escape her.
“I am truly grateful to God who trusted me that I wasn’t willing to go, and to have me captured and to my family for saving me,” she said.
Fearing that Adnan could again detain his daughter based on a false marriage, Liaqat Masih sought help from the True Spirit of Christians (CTS), a paralegal organization that runs a shelter for Christian women and girls. Catherine Sapna, executive director of CTS, said Muskan’s parents repeatedly attempted to file an abduction case in 2023 when their daughter disappeared from her home.
“Local police didn’t enjoy their application, and poor families were forced to search for their daughter on their own without success,” Sapna told Christian Daily International Morning Star News.
After Muscan called his sister on May 26th, the family contacted CTS for legal assistance.
“We immediately filed a habeas-protection petition to recover the minor girl and the court instructed local police to give birth to her in court,” Sapna said. “We were disappointed when Muskan made a statement before the judge in favor of the accused, but we also realized that she was forced to do so under obsessiveness.”
When Masi informed CTS that Maskan had fled Adnan’s house but was at a serious risk of being reclaimed, the group quickly moved her to a safe house for her protection, Sapna said.
“The girl has suffered from severe mental and physical trauma during her two years of prisoner,” she said. “Healing and restoring takes her time, but we believe that the Lord will fully recover her.”
CTS’ legal team should not turn the stones over to launch a criminal case against Adnan and ensure Maskan’s justice, Sapna said.
“We guarantee that Adnan and his accomplices will be effectively charged and punished for kidnapping Muscan, exposing them to sexual and physical violence, and covering the crime with false religious conversion and marriage,” she vowed.
Masi worked as a Mason, but after the abduction of his daughter, he became ill and was unable to work, Sapna said.
“The family barely can meet at either end, so we took it to ourselves to provide them with legal assistance as well as their daughter’s medical and psychological treatment,” she said.
Pakistan, a Muslim with a population of 96%, ranked 8th on the 2025 World Watchlist, the hardest place to become a Christian.
