A 14-year-old Christian boy’s employer is accused of keeping the boy from his family and of forcing him to convert to Islam.
Jameel Masih has worked for years at the cattle shed of a Muslim. Jameel’s pay is 200 kilograms of wheat (valued at $58) each year for his impoverished family, according to his dad, Sharif Masih, who told Morning Star News.
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Jameel’s family could visit once a month, and he could stay home overnight occasionally.
On Feb. 22, Jameel’s parents were denied a visit, and the employer “told us that Jameel did not want to meet us,” Sharif said.
Local Muslim elders heard the parents’ demand to see their son and forced the employer to let Jameel go.
But once the family was home, the employer and two armed assailants attacked the parents and took Jameel, said Sharif, a member of New Apostolic Church in Pancho Baig Kotla village in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
Sharif said the family has since been told that Jameel converted to Islam.
Christian advocacy group HARDS Pakistan is helping Sharif seek assistance from Farooqabad Saddar Police in recovering Jameel, Morning Star reported.
World Watch
Pakistan is No. 8 on Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List of the 50 places most difficult to be a Christian.
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