According to her family and human rights organisations, 13-year-old Christian girl Amber Nadeem from Faisalabad in Pakistan’s Punjab province was abducted on 12 June 2026. She was forcibly converted to Islam and married off to the Muslim Mohsin Liaqat.
Amber was abducted while on her way to a market. Her parents, day labourer Nadeem Masih and his wife Nadia Nadeem, spent several days trying to get the police to register a complaint. In the meantime, documents were produced claiming that she had converted voluntarily, married and that she was born in 2008, making her 18 years old.
Pakistan has a problem with abduction, forced conversion and child marriage
Amber appeared before a judge on 27 June and revealed that members of the accused’s family had coached and pressured her to claim that she was an adult. The suspect then produced a conversion certificate and marriage certificate stating Amber’s date of birth as June 2008. Her parents documented that they themselves married in 2012, and church records show that Amber is 13 years old.
The lawyers representing the suspect warned Amber that she could be punished for apostasy if she renounced Islam.
– This is a serious abuse of legal and moral authority. The defence also argued that laws enacted to protect children, women and religious minorities cease to apply when a person, regardless of age, converts to Islam, according to Voice of Justice.
A magistrate ordered a medical age assessment and placed her in a government-run shelter. Nevertheless, District and Sessions Judge Rana Sohail decided to grant Mohsin Liaqat bail and hand Amber over to him.
– Returning a minor to a person accused of abducting and sexually exploiting her undermines the criminal justice system’s duty to protect children, Voice for Justice maintains.
A PAKISTANI COURT GAVE A CHRISTIAN MOTHER'S THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD TO THE ACCUSED
Her name is Amber Nadeem. She is thirteen years old.
She disappeared from her family in Faisalabad, Punjab Province, Pakistan on June 12, 2026.Christian advocates say she was taken by a Muslim man… pic.twitter.com/9ggN1Kiqgk
— Imtiaz Mahmood (@ImtiazMadmood) September 3, 2026
Christian organisations and human rights groups such as Voice of Justice and Minorities Alliance Pakistan have strongly condemned the decision. They believe it places a minor child at risk and illustrates Pakistan’s problems with the targeted abduction of Christians followed by forced conversion and child marriage.
