HYDERABAD: Members of the local Hindu community staged a demonstration on Sunday to protest delay in the handing over to them of a Hindu girl who wedded a Muslim man “despite being underage”.

The protest, led by Pakistan Darawar Ittehad chairman Faqira Sheva Kachhi, the girl’s mother Shirimati Amri, and sisters Sona and Bahgwati, was held outside the local press club.

Shiva Kachhi claimed that the girl, Chanda, was 16-year-old and came from Maharaj’s family that had settled in Hyderabad after migrating from Matli. He alleged that she was kidnapped by a man, Shaman Magsi, some 45 days ago from the Hali Road area. He said that 15 days back, she was produced in a Hyderabad court, which ordered her medical examination.

Mr Kachhi claimed that the medical examination established her age as 16 years but court remanded her custody to Daraul Aman, where her parents were not allowed to meet her.

But Shaman Magsi, who married her, had been meeting her regularly.

He further claimed that Chanda’s marriage was illegal and, therefore, she should be handed over to her family. He demanded that a forced conversion and unlawful marriage case should be registered against Magsi and all those responsible for this marriage should also be taken to task.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2022