
Christian boy forcibly converted to Islam in Pakistan, sources say
A Muslim landowner in Pakistan forcibly converted to Islam a 14-year-old Christian employee and is holding him in illegal custody.

A Muslim landowner in Pakistan forcibly converted to Islam a 14-year-old Christian employee and is holding him in illegal custody.

Police in Pakistan allegedly failed to act after a 14-year-old Christian girl was abducted, forcibly converted to Islam and married to a Muslim man despite official documents showing she is a minor, her father and legal counsel said.

A brick kiln worker’s forced conversion to Islam in Pakistan’s national database has left his five children unable to have their Christian faith designated on their national identity cards, his son said.

A high court in Pakistan this month rejected bail for a blind Christian charged with blasphemy despite significant discrepancies in the police report and prosecution testimonies, his attorney said.

In a landmark move welcomed by Christian rights advocates, the governor of Pakistan’s Punjab Province on Wednesday (Feb. 11) signed into law an ordinance raising the minimum legal age of marriage to 18 and making child marriage a non-bailable offense punishable by up to seven years in prison.

Christians in a village in Nigeria remain traumatized by violence even as a priest held hostage for 61 days was released last month, sources said.

Fulani herdsmen last month killed a pastor, his daughter and her husband, leaving the couple’s 3-month-old baby with a machete wound, in Plateau state, Nigeria.

A court in Pakistan has acquitted two Catholic nurses who have been in hiding for nearly four years after they were charged with blasphemy in 2021, rights advocates said.

A federal court in Pakistan on Tuesday (Feb. 3) gave custody of a 13-year-old Christian girl to a Muslim who kidnapped and forcibly converted and married her, sources said.

A Catholic suffered severe burn injuries after a Muslim neighbor allegedly doused him with petrol and set him on fire following a minor dispute, his attorney said.

Residents of a village in Kaduna state have confirmed to news outlet Truth Nigeria that 177 Christians were kidnapped from three churches on Sunday (Jan. 18) following government attempts to impede access and block information about the crime.

Suspected Fulani militias in Kaduna state, Nigeria raided three church worship services on Sunday (Jan. 18) in what local leaders said could be the largest mass kidnapping of Christian farmers in the area.