London: September 13, 2008. The head of CLAAS UK, Nasir Saeed, has welcomed the ruling of a Pakistani court this week to return a 10-year-old Christian girl, Anila Younis, to her parents after she was kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam. Her 13-year-old sister, Saba Younis, who was abducted, forcibly converted to Islam, and married to the son of one of her abductors, was given the choice of returning to her parents but has decided to remain with her husband. Saba and Anila were kidnapped on 26 June from Chak Sarwar Shaheed whilst on their way to their uncle’s house. Their abductors claimed that Saba voluntarily entered into the marriage and that both girls had agreed to convert to Islam. The family of the girls told CLAAS that after their abduction Saba and Anila wore hijabs and were not allowed to speak to them on the grounds that they were non-Muslims. A district court judge in Muzaffargarh originally dismissed a petition by the parents to regain custody of their daughters on the grounds that the two sisters had “converted in a legitimate manner to Islam” and that Saba's marriage was legitimate. CLAAS, whose lawyers represented the parents in legal proceedings, welcomed the ruling of the court on 9 September although it is still considering whether to take further legal action against the abductors. “This ruling is a great breakthrough for us and will increase our chances of a positive outcome in similar cases we are still working on,” said Mr Saeed. “This is the first time that Christian parents have been awarded custody of at least one of their abducted children. “It has only been made possible by the international pressure on the Pakistani Government to carry out justice and allow the girls the possibility of returning to their family.” Mr Saeed said that the abduction and forced conversion of Christian girls was becoming increasingly common in Pakistan as a result of discriminatory laws, growing religious hatred towards Christians, and fundamentalism in Pakistan, where Christians make up only two per cent of the population. “This case sheds light on the suffering of Christians who live in Pakistan as second class citizens,” he said. “The blasphemy laws and the forced conversion of Christian women and girls remain of the greatest concern to us.” Pakistan’s courts have previously come under fire for failing to act in cases involving the kidnapping and forced conversion of a minor Christian girl. In 1998, three sisters, Nadia Masih, 15, Naima Masih, 13, and Nabila Masih, 11, were abducted in New Phagwari, Rawalpindi, allegedly by local police, who claimed that the girls had willingly converted to Islam and could therefore no longer remain in the custody of their Christian parents. This claim was upheld in court after a judge ruled that the girls could not be returned to their parents unless they also converted to Islam.