HYDERABAD: Nawabshah police claimed on Tuesday to have thwarted the alleged sale in marriage of two girls to men in Balochistan.
Sisters, 19-year-old Naghma Mastoi and 17-year-old Fauzia Mastoi, were allegedly being sold by their mother and step-father in connivance with a local policeman for the second time. “They were selling me for Rs400,000 and my sister for Rs300,000 to two men in Balochistan,” Naghma told the media at A-Section police station after they were recovered by the police in a raid.
A few years ago, they were traded in marriage for Rs150,000 each and a piece of land to two Kambar-Shahdadkot-based men identified as Khair Mohammed Rind and Sardar Lashari.
Our nikkah with our husbands is still intact but we are being forced to enter into another marriage, the sisters claimed, adding that they already want divorce from their existing husbands as they were forced.
Crime Investigation Agency inspector Mobin Parehar said the police received a call for help from the sisters. Three suspects, including the girls’ mother Najma, step-father Muhammad Deen Lashari and police constable Hidayat Ali Mastoi were arrested.
An FIR under Section 365 (kidnapping and compelling for marriage) of the Pakistan Penal Code has been registered against the three suspects on Naghma’s complaint. The girls are presently at their mother’s home, while the three suspects have been sent to jail.
Nawabshah SSP Tanveer Ahmed Tunio said that the accused police constable has been suspended while the raiding team has been rewarded. According to him, the suspects have denied the charges but an investigation is under way.
