HYDERABAD, Oct 31: A medico legal officer, Ms Sabira Sultana Abbasi, here on Thursday examined a 10-year-old girl, who was said to have been given by her father in lieu of a loan obtained from a person of his village.

The Manjhand police had brought the girl to the Liaquat University Hospital on Wednesday night and again on Thursday morning for the examination after the girl lodged a case with them, in which she had accused Ghulam Shabbir Pirzada, 40, of attempted sexual assault.

According to the girl, her father, Ali Nawaz Kachhi alias Nazar Mohammad Kachhi, had sold her to Pirzada, after having failed to repay the loan of Rs20,000, which he had obtained a year ago to buy a buffalo.

The village Jirga had unanimously decided that the girl should be handed over to the lender against the amount owed by Ali Nawaz.

However, the Nikah of the girl was performed with Pirzada and it was decided that she should live with Pirzada’s uncle, Jan Mohammad, till she reached the age of puberty.

The Jirga decided that the girl should then begin living with her husband.

The girl is a resident of Bhit Kachi village, some seven kilometres away from Manjhand near the Dargah of Owais Shah, and Pirzada lives in the Manjhand city.

The girl, who was visibly harassed and confused, said that Pirzada had asked her not to go to her parent’s house as well as the house of her maternal aunt.

She accused him of maltreating her in Jan Mohammad’s house.

She said that he had taken her away from the house of her maternal aunt after she had gone there to see her new-born baby and had beaten her for having visited there.

She said he had also burnt her with cigarettes.

The girl said that Pirzada had taken her to his own house and tried to molest her after intercepting her as she was coming back from her parent’s home.

She said that she had resisted and that her clothes were torn in the process.

The medico-legal officer, who examined the girl, could not be contacted for her comments in this regard.

The doctor would present her finding about the nature of wounds as well as the attempted rape.

Punhoo, one of the nephews of the girls’s father, said that his uncle had similarly ‘sold’ two of his sisters-in-law, adding that he had now sold his own daughter.

The police have reportedly arrested Ghulam Shabbir Pirzada. The girl is also in the police custody.

Our Bureau adds: The Nazim of the union council of the Manjhand taluka, Kotri, Dadu district, Shahid Hussain Kachhi, while confirming the news said that the child had escaped on Saturday.

He said the police were trying to save the culprit.

The Nazim said he was trying to approach the AIG Police for taking further action.

In the meantime, the Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party has termed the incident despicable and inhuman.

A statement issued by the representative of the party, Muzaffar Kalhoro, the president of the party’s women’s wing, Sehr Razvi and the in-charge of its human rights wing, Mehboob Abro said that the perpetrators of this heinous crime should be arrested and awarded exemplary punishment.