SUKKUR: Residents of Mian Mahar village situated near Pannu Aqil on Sunday held a demonstration outside the Sukkur Press Club against forcible marriage of a 10-year-old girl with a 30-year-old man.

The protesters, led by Waryam Mahar, Sarang Mahar and Tahir Hussain Mahar, told the media that feudal lords of the area including Mir Mohammed Mahar, Buland Mahar, Sahibo Mahar and Sajan Mahar, were forcing them to hand over a 10-year-old girl, Bachal, to an elderly man by solemnising their Nikah.

They said that they resisted the order but the feudal lords sent a group of armed men to their village who beat up her defiant parents and relatives and warned of dire consequences if they did not come to terms of the village elders.

Sarang Mahar said that the same feudal lords had snatched his 12-year-old daughter, Fareeda, and forcibly solemnised her marriage with a 30-year-old man, Dilbar Mahar, a few months back.

They said they approached SHO of the Mubarakpur police station Ahmed Ali Halepota but he along with his subordinate policemen instead carried out raids on the their homes and picked up a youth, Mohammed Urs Mahar, who was still unaccounted for. They alleged that the area police were subservient to the feudal lords.

They urged the higher authorities to intervene in the matter and provide protection to them against the feudal lords’ high-handedness. They also called for action against the area police.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2016