Daniel Dhani Ram is flanked by daughters Tehseen, left, and Sharoon as he sits in his lawyer's office Thursday. The family has won a lengthy battle to stay in Canada. (Craig Robertson, QMI Agency)

TORONTO - A tearful Daniel Dhani Ram said he fled here from Pakistan with his two daughters after Muslim extremists abducted and tortured him for 10 hours because he refused to convert to Islam.

Dhani Ram, 67, with Sharoon, 32, and Tehseen, 30, were allowed to stay in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds after a lengthy battle with immigration authorities.

They arrived as visitors in 2004 and filed failed refugee claims.

They were here illegally for 18 months before being allowed to stay on appeal last month.

"I would rather die than go back to Pakistan," Ram said at his lawyer's downtown office on Thursday.

"I know I will be killed and my daughters harmed if we went back."

Ram said he was abducted by Muslim extremists in '04 and tortured for 10 hours. He was released after a ransom was paid.

"My father was kidnapped, tortured and beaten," a sobbing Tehseen said. "They beat him all over his body for hours at a time and he was in bad shape."

Tehseen said earlier two men tried but failed to abduct her and Sharoon as they were walking home from school.

"We both started screaming and the men ran off," she said. "It was very painful and my sister still suffers from that."

Rev. Majed El Shafie, of One Free World International rights group, said if the family was de ported, they'd have quite likely been met at the airport in Pakistan by extremists and killed.

"These cases are the tip of the iceberg," El Shafie said. "Christians are regularly targeted by Muslim extremists and put into slave camps in Pakistan to make bricks."

Lawyer Chantal Desloges said the family will become permanent immigrants once they pass medical checks.

"It would have been impossible for this family to go back unharmed," Desloges said. "The situation against Christians there is getting worse."

Rev. Stephen Long, of Airport Christian Fellowship, said Christians are regularly victimized in Pakistan.

"Christians are treated like dogs in Pakistan," Long said. "This sort of incident is very common."