LAHORE, Pakistan — Police in Pakistan arrested a Muslim man accused of threatening to kill a Christian woman if she refused to convert to Islam and marry him, according to her family.

Imran Masih of Chak 6/11-L village near Harappa, Sahiwal District, said his 20-year-old niece, Laiba Javed, received a handwritten note from Rehman Irfan on April 2 demanding that she convert to Islam and marry him by April 15. In the note, Irfan warned that she would be killed if she refused, Masih said.

Masih said Javed, who works in Lahore, had returned to her ancestral village to celebrate Easter with relatives when she received the note.

“Irfan, who is a former schoolmate of Laiba, came to our house with two armed accomplices when she was alone,” Masih told Christian Daily International–Morning Star News. “He handed her a letter at gunpoint stating that he loved her and would go to any extent to marry her after converting her.”

Javed immediately informed her family, who contacted the police. Masih said officers initially advised restraint due to Easter celebrations.

Tensions escalated on Easter Sunday when a cousin of the suspect allegedly disrupted a sunrise procession, prompting the family to again contact authorities. This time, police responded and raided the cousin’s residence.

“The police went to arrest his cousin but also found Irfan there and took him into custody,” Masih said. “He has been booked for issuing threats, but we fear he could be released on bail and continue to harass us.”

Masih said Javed has since left the village due to safety concerns, though they remain worried about her security. Her mother died a few years ago, and her father works as a farm laborer, he added.

Ejaz Alam Augustine, a member of the Punjab Assembly and former provincial minister for human rights and minority affairs, said weak enforcement of laws continues to embolden perpetrators targeting girls from religious minority communities.

He also criticized a Feb. 11 ruling by Pakistan’s Federal Constitutional Court that upheld the marriage of a 13-year-old Christian girl, Maria Shahbaz, to a 30-year-old Muslim who had allegedly abducted her. The court ruled that Islamic law permits Muslim men to marry women from Ahl-e-Kitab (People of the Book), a decision Augustine said has heightened fears among minority communities.

“This judgment has created a sense of impunity,” Augustine said. “Many now believe it has put the security of Christian girls at greater risk.”

Rights groups have long warned of the vulnerability of women and girls from minority religions in 96% Muslim Pakistan to forced conversions and marriages.

At least 515 cases of abduction and forced conversion involving minority women and girls were reported between 2021 and 2025, according to a study by the Lahore-based Center for Social Justice. Hindu girls accounted for 69% (353 cases), followed by Christian girls at 31% (160 cases), while two cases involved Sikh victims.

More than half of the victims were between 14 and 18 years old, and about 20% were under 14, the report found.

In Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List, it ranked Pakistan eighth among countries where Christians face the most severe persecution, citing systemic discrimination, mob violence, forced conversions and weak law enforcement.

This article was originally published at Christian Daily International–Morning Star News

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