Two teenage girls who were allegedly forced to marry older men from within their community were recovered by police officials in Kaloi town of Sindh's Tharparkar district on Sunday.

A police team headed by Station House Officer Hussain Bux Rajar of Kaloi Police Station raided Haji Khan Loond village as dinner was underway following the joint marriage ceremony. During the ceremony, a 14-year-old girl had been married off to a 24-year-old man while a 15-year-old girl had been married off to a 23-year-old man.

The police team arrested both the bridegrooms on charges of forcibly marrying the teenage girls and brought their child brides to the police station for interrogation.

According to SHO Rajar, police also arrested the father of the 15-year-old girl and the brother of the 14-year-old during the raid.

SHO Rajar informed local journalists that a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against eight persons including both the grooms, their close relatives, and against a cleric who performed the nikah and managed to flee afterwards.

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The case was registered under Sections 3 (punishment for male contracting party), 4 (punishment for solemnising a child marriage) and 5 (punishment for parent or guardian concerned in a child marriage) of the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2013, on the complaint of Nek Mohammad, a close relative of both the girls.

The SHO said that both girls had been handed over to Ghulam Nabi Loond, the chairman of union council Kaloi and a relative of both the girls, on the assurance that he would produce the girls in court.

SSP Tharparkar Abdullah Ahmedyar told Dawn that the recovered child brides and those nominated in the FIR would be produced in a court in Mithi on Monday.

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He said that he had directed the Kaloi SHO to ensure full protection of the rescued girls.

It is pertinent to mention here that child marriages are considered to be a prime factor behind the unabated deaths of infants in drought-hit Thar.

In January, the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights had unanimously passed a bill to amend the Child Marriage Restraint Act and raise the marriageable age to 18.

In March, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf lawmaker Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani had submitted two bills in the National Assembly Secretariat seeking enhancement of the punishment for those involved in such crimes and for making child marriage a cognisable offence.