Police foil attempt of marrying an underage girl with middle-age man

UMARKOT-Local police on Monday foiled an attempt to marry an underage girl with a middle-age man in Umarkot and arrested four persons.

Those arrested for involvement in the illegal marriage attempt included 40-year-old groom, his mother and mother of the underage girl. The women police filed a case against the accused under the underage marriage law.  It is to be mentioned here that underage marriages are common in all parts of the country. People below the age of 18 can’t be married under the Child Marriage Restraint Act.

Last month a case was registered against six men for allegedly abducting a 12-year-old girl from Ahmedabad in Punjab, who was later forcefully married to a 45-year-old man. The girl was recovered by police officials, however, the accused managed to flee from the location. The father of the girl had appealed the higher authorities to take action against the responsible persons and complained about non-cooperation from the police department in the case.

Earlier in November, a case of child marriage had surfaced in the Thul town in northern Sindh. The local police had taken custody of an underage couple in Sukkur’s Thul town. They said that the minor girl’s father and the boy’s brother have been arrested over the child marriage while a cleric who solemnized the nikah fled from the scene.

Newspaper: The Nation