Christian girl forced to convert to Islam in Pakistan

In a third incident of conversion of girls from minority communities in over a week, a 15-year-old Christian girl was allegedly forced to convert to Islam by her teacher in Pakistan's Punjab province.

According to a complaint filed by the girl's father Mukhtar Masih at a police station, Faiza was taken to a seminary in the Sheikhupura city, some 50 kms from Lahore, by her school principal Saleema Bibi, who forced her to embrace Islam.

Mukhtar said the girl had gone to school on Wednesday but did not return home.

We contacted the school to inquire about her. A class teacher told us that Principal Saleema Bibi had taken our girl to a madrassa (seminary) to convert her to Islam," he said.

Mukhtar said they visited at least three seminaries and found her in one of them but the staff did not allow her to return with them.

Police raided the seminary on the basis of the complaint, recovered the girl and shifted her to a Darul Aman (shelter home) in Sheikhupura.

We took action and recovered the girl on Mukhtar Masih's complaint but FIR has not been registered against any one yet. However, we are investigating the matter, Muhammad Nawaz, the police official investigating the case said.

The girl told her parents that as she was reading Arabic in school, her teacher said she had "automatically become a Muslim."