LARKANA: Twelve-year-old Imtiaz Khatoon Chandio who was forcibly married off to Mir Hassan Chandio by her uncle has accused her uncle and relatives of Mir Hassan of issuing death threats to her and her family.

The minor girl, sitting with her father Mumtaz Chandio at the press club, told journalists on Monday that one day her uncle Panjal Chandio took her to Gul Mohammed-ji-Wandh village near Dakhan at the pretext that she would do domestic work while they were busy in rice harvesting.

Third day after her arrival in the village, she said, her uncle forcibly married her off to Mir Hassan, his (uncle’s) close relative. She escaped from the village after three months and reached his father’s home in Purano Ghat near old sabzi mandi, she said.

Khatoon’s father alleged that his brother did not allow him to see her when he had gone to the village expressly to meet her. After she reached home, they met the DIG of Larkana Sanaullah Abbasi on Wednesday and told him her ordeal. The DIG appointed Irshad Bhutto, supervising police officer at the Haidri police station, as inquiry officer to look into her allegations.

She told the inquiry officer on Thursday that her uncle and his relatives had not only been torturing her during her stay with them but also forcing her to do all domestic chores.

One day, she alleged that Chhuttal, a policeman and brother of Mir Hassan (whom she was forcibly married off) subjected her to criminal assault.
Source: Dawn
Date:10/6/2009