UMERKOT, July 16: A 20-year-old woman who had been sold into marriage at the age of 10 was electrocuted allegedly to death by her in-laws in Ahmedpur Lama on Sunday.

Yar Mohammad Mangrio of Mangrio mohalla in Umerko told this correspondent that he had married his daughter Hawa to Nizam Maher of Ahmedpur Lama in Sadiqabad district of Punjab when he was under the influence of liquor. He accused a marriage-maker of having made him drunk.

But his neighbours accuse him of selling his daughter for Rs80,000.

“I brought Hawa home two years ago because she was being maltreated by her in-laws but then sent her back on community’s pressure and on an undertaking that she would be treated well.” Her in-laws killed her on Sunday Magrio alleged and said they had given her electric shocks to hide their crime.

Mohammad Urs, the woman’s uncle told this correspondent on phone from Ahmedpur Lama that the SHO of the area’s police station not only refused to register a murder case but also threatened that he would not let them take her body to Umerkot.

Hawa’s body was handed over only after her in-laws forced him to sign a paper saying that she had died because of electric shock, he said.

Hawa’s woman Suhni said that her 10-year-old daughter Dhai, married to Jamal Mehar, 55, of Manther Banglow Sadiqabad last year had also returned home. She said she would not send her back to her husband. But neighbours alleged the girl had been sold into marriage for Rs1.4 million.

Suhni also said that her niece Hanifan who had been sold into marriage because of poverty was killed by her in-laws.

Leader of Sindh Tarraqqi Pasand Party Abdul Karim Mangrio said that there was a common practice in Umerkot, Tharparkar and Sanghar to sell girls aged between four and 20 years for Rs80,000 to Rs1.5 million to men of Sadiqabad, Rahimyar Khan, Ghotki and Daharki.

In some cases they are termed karo-kari and killed to settle score with rivals, he said while referring to the murder of Hanifan in Ghotki.