Child marriage: Six held after 8-year girl forced to wed

The girl’s uncle had kidnapped the groom’s cousin to marry her.

FAISALABAD:

Toba Tek Singh police on Saturday arrested six people, including a 12-year-old groom, for marrying an eight-year-old girl who had been declared vani by a panchayat.

Rafiq Ahmad, a relative of the ‘bride’ Salma*, told the media that Ramzan Ali, a resident of village 397 JB, had an affair with a girl, Rafia Bibi*.

He said Ali kidnapped Rafia, the daughter of Ghulam Qasim of Jhang, to marry her.

Ahmad said Qasim later arranged a panchayat requesting it to take action against Ali. The panchayat declared Salma, the niece of Ali, vani and ordered him to marry her to Asad Ali, a cousin of Rafia.

“Salma’s parents objected to the panchayat’s decision and refused to marry her. This enraged members of the panchayat who abducted Salma from her house and forcibly solemnised her nikkah with Asad, a resident of Jhang.”

Ahmad said Salma’s parent alerted the police who conducted a raid and arrested a number of accused, including the groom, his father and uncle.

Toba Tek Singh Saddar Station House Officer (SHO) Fida Hussain told The Express Tribune that the police had registered a case against 13 people for declaring the girl vani and marrying her to Asad. He said Qasim, his nephew and other accused resided in village Doli Shaheed in Jhang Saddar.

The area did not fall in our jurisdiction and we had requested the Jhang police to help arrest the accused, the SHO said. Hussain said Toba Tek Singh and Jhang police conducted a joint raid and arrested six people, including Asad, his father Muhammad Ramzan, Qasim and Hayat Muhammad, one of the two men who had signed the marriage documents as witnesses.

He said police were looking for other accused, including nikah khwan Zafar Iqbal, who had fled.

*Names have been changed to protect identities

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2014.