LARKANA: Larkana police on Tuesday recovered a 12-year-old girl (a student of class-V) who was found chained and detained in a room of her house.

The police carried out the raid after receiving information that parents of Shazia Chandio had chained her and confined to the room for her refusal to marry a 40-year-old man.

According to the headmistress of the Govt Primary School, Wapda Scarp Colony, Nayab Sarkash Sindhi, she visited Shazia’s home to inquire about her long absence after her class teacher, who lived next door, informed her that she had heard Shazia crying foul on Monday night. Ms Sindhi said Shazia’s parents admitted that they were punishing her for defying them over the marriage proposal.

She said she warned the couple against meting out such a treatment to their daughter and also posted her plight along with her picture on social media.

In the meantime, police also received the information and DSP Yar Mohammed along with his team raided the house at Mirokhan Chown to recover the girl. The girl’s mother was detained but father managed to escape.

SSP Kamran Nawaz Panjotha told Dawn that initial investigation suggested that the couple had promised to accept Karim Bukhsh Chandio’s proposal for their daughter against a payment of Rs100,000 and had already received Rs70,000 in advance. He said Ms Shazia and her mother Ms Sakina were kept at the women police station and would be produced in court on Wednesday.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2016