BADIN: Three suspects arrested late on Thursday evening during a raid on a wedding ceremony in Gulan Lashari village near Matli town were produced in a civil court, which remanded them into police custody for 14 days.

Rawat Lashari, the father of an 11-year-old girl, and the would-be groom, Abdul Karim Lashari, along with another person who was allegedly called to perform the Nikah, were arrested to foil the underage girl’s marriage, SHO Mir Hassan Rajo of the Dando police station said.

According to the police, the girl was being handed over to Karim Lashari, 56, in compliance with the ruling of a jirga in his favour after he pleaded that he must be compensated this way under the custom of vani against elopement a few months ago of his wife, who belonged to Rawat Lashari’s immediate family.

An FIR (26/2017) was registered against the three suspects, along with some other people on the complaint of SI Ali Akbar Chhalgari on behalf of the state under Section 310 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Sections 1, 2 and 3 of the Sindh Child Marriage (Restraint) Act, 2013.

The civil court has ordered the police to produce the girl on Saturday to record her statement.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2017