Child married twice against will
RAHIM YAR KHAN/ KOT SABZAL: Kot Sabzal police registered a case against 12 people including local landlords belonging to the Shir clan for giving handing over an eight-year-old girl in Wani. An FIR has been lodged under Articles 360A and 366A of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
According to police officials, the accused had charged Yasin of karo kari with Salim’s wife two years ago. A panchayat then declared that Yasin’s brother Shabbir Ahmed give his six- year-old daughter Gulzaraan in wani as atonement for his brother’s crime. Gulzaraan was then forced into marrying Bashir Ahmed, a 21-year-old member of the Shir clan.
Two months ago one of the panchayat leaders, wadera Rasool Bukhsh Shir forcibly handed custody of the girl over to another party. The girl’s father protested saying that his daughter was a minor but had been forced into intercourse which had caused severe injuries. “She was married to me for nearly two years and I could do whatever I wanted with her but I didn’t,” Ahmed said, adding that he had allowed for Gulzaraan to be handed over to a buyer who had purchased the girl for Rs87,000.
Gulzaraan was purchased by an influential family in a neighbouring village. “Bashir Ahmed divorced the girl and when she came to us she was wed to my nephew,” Haji Master Dad Shir, said, adding that once the girl was married to his nephew Rasul Buksh, he did not know what happened.
According to police officials, Rasul had intercourse with the girl and she was severely injured as a result. She was taken to a district hospital in Sukkur for treatment and doctors said that she had sustained internal injuries. “The child is only eight-years-old and she was severely bruised when she was brought to us,” Dr Pervaiz Alam said, adding that they had handed Gulzaraan’s custody over to her father after treating her. On her return to her parent’s house Gulzaraan broke down and told the police what had happened, she said that her first husband Bashir Ahmed had not hurt her but made her do house work and sold her off to another family. “The second man, Rasul was cruel and he hurt me badly,” she said.
On the complaint of the girl’s father, Shabbir Ahmed, an FIR has been registered against wadera Rasul Bukhsh Shir, Gulzaraan’s former husband Bashir Ahmed, his brothers Muhammad Salim, Muhammad Anwar and waderas Sardar Sonharay Khan, Master Dad Shir, second husband Rasul Bukhsh, Nazir Ahmed, Lal Bukhsh and Gul Hasan. Ahmed said that his daughter had suffered dearly and he had begged the police to intervene and provide them with protection from the waderas.
“I know that if the men are released they will seek revenge on my family and Gulzaran, and she cannot be made to suffer any more than she has already,” he said.
Source: The Express Tribune
Date:7/29/2010
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