An 18-year-old woman has been reunited with her Catholic family after six months of captivity, forced conversion to Islam and coerced marriage to the Muslim who abducted her, sources said.
Huma Allah Ditta’s ordeal began when she failed to return home from her job at a call center in Lahore on June 28. Her distraught parents, Allah Ditta and Azra Bibi, began a desperate search, and Ditta filed a First Information Report (FIR) with Shahdara Police the next day.
He expressed concern that his daughter had been abducted by unknown persons, but police took no action, Bibi said.
“Despite registering the FIR, the police made no effort to find Huma,” Bibi told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “They kept asking us to name suspects, but how could we nominate anyone when we didn’t have any clue?”
Days turned into weeks, and there was still no sign of Huma. A relative connected Ditta, a van driver, and Bibi, a domestic worker, with Christians’ True Spirit (CTS), a paralegal organization based in Lahore.
“The pressure exerted by CTS’s legal team worked, and police were finally able to trace Huma’s whereabouts on Aug. 4,” Bibi siad. “It was then we discovered that Huma had been abducted by a Muslim man named Abdul Basit Butt, who had forcibly converted her to Islam and married her against her will to hide his crime.”
CTS filed a habeas corpus petition on Aug. 7 for the recovery of Huma, but in court she said she had converted and married Butt of her own will – a statement clearly given under fear that Butt would do harm to herself and/or family, said Bibi.
“The court discharged our petition after Huma’s statement in favor of the accused, and we had no choice but to see her leave with her abductor,” she said. “Her appearance and conduct during the court proceeding made it clear to us that she hadn’t gone with the Muslim man willingly.”
Huma’s parents and their legal team noticed that she was under obvious pressure, visibly fearful of her so-called husband, Bibi said.
“While we couldn’t challenge the court’s decision, my husband and I decided to put this matter in God’s hands and started praying vigorously for our daughter’s return,” she said.
The couple’s prayers were answered on Jan. 16, when Huma managed to escape from Butt’s custody and was reunited with her family.
“We were immensely relieved to see Huma, but the physical and psychological trauma she had endured during the months of her captivity had left deep scars on her soul,” Bibi said. “She recounted how she was abducted en route to her workplace, coerced into converting to Islam and forced into marriage. She also revealed how she was confined to a room, subjected to verbal and physical abuse, and threatened with death if she attempted to escape.”
The Catholic family was stunned when the suspect continued to hound their daughter.
“Butt filed a case against us on Jan. 20 alleging that we had abducted his ‘wife’ and sought her recovery,” Bibi said. “However, the court has dismissed his case after Huma told the court that she had been converted and married against her will and did not want to return to her so-called husband.”
She said that despite the court’s decision, the family was still fearful for the security of their daughter.
“We can only hope and pray that God will keep him away from our family. CTS is now filing a petition for annulling the sham marriage, and we are hopeful that Huma will be able to resume her normal life after this,” she said.
CTS Executive Director Katherine Sapna said Huma’s ordeal highlighted the vulnerability of young women, particularly those from religious minorities, to abduction and forced conversion/marriage in Pakistan.
“Huma’s case is not an isolated incident,” Sapna told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “We have documented numerous cases of young Christian girls being abducted, forcibly converted and married to Muslim men. These incidents often go unreported due to fear of reprisal from powerful individuals and groups.”
Such incidents underscore the urgent need for greater protection of vulnerable groups and for an end to the impunity that perpetrators of such crimes often enjoy, Sapna said.
Pakistan ranked eighth on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the most difficult places to be a Christian.
