LARKANA, Sept 22: Police took custody of a 12-year-old girl allegedly tortured by her husband and sent her to a women’s police station on Monday.

“We picked Shahnaz after receiving information that her husband was torturing her,” ASI Sartaj Jagirani of the Waleed police station told Dawn. She would be sent to hospital for medical check-up, he added.

Her husband Abdul Latif Brohi and brother Aijaz Siyal have been arrested.

Shahnaz told Dawn that her brother Ismail had sold her in Hyderabad for Rs80,000 when she was only five years old.

She was rescued about three months ago on high court’s orders on a petition filed by her brother Ajiaz who later sold her to Latif Brohi for Rs125,000 and a marriage was solemnised three months ago. She alleged that her husband was a drug addict who used to beat her and keep her in locked room. She also said that her in-laws used to threaten to kill her.

She said she had no mother and would prefer to live with her father Allah Bakhsh Siyal, a payer leader, after getting divorce.

Shahnaz said she had five married sisters.