SUKKUR, Feb 23: The Sindh High Court has ordered two landlords and an accused in the case of a forcible marriage a nine-year-old girl and criminal assault on her to appear in the court on Feb 26 for cross-examination.

In the first case, the two-member Sukkur bench of the SHC on Friday, ordered accused Bashir Ahmed Chachar, landlords Bakhtiar Chachar and Ghulam Akber Chachar, relatives of the girl and the concerned police officials to appear before the court on the same date.

The court ordered the authorities to keep the girl at the Darul Aman till the disposal of the case.

The order was passed on a petition filed by Nawab Khatoon, mother of the minor girl, H, in which she alleged that Bashir blamed her son, Yaseen, for having committed adultery with his wife.

She stated that the matter was taken up before the local Panchayat in Gudpur, Pano Aqil, for settlement and the Panchayat decided to marry Yasin’s nine-year-old sister with Bashir to avenge his “misdeed.”

Later, Nikah between the minor girl and Bashir was solemnized with the pledge that she would not be sent to the house of her groom until reaching the age of adulthood.

Two landlords, Bakhtiar Chachar and Ghulam Akber Chachar, played a vital role in the Panchayat decision and also forced the girl’s parents to marry their daughter with Bashir.

The petitioner went on to allege that last week Bashir visited their house and took the girl with him, saying that she would stay with his family for some time.

The girl’s mother alleged that Bashir criminally assaulted her daughter, resulting in worsening of her physical condition.

She said that she with a relative rushed to the house of Bashir when she came to know about her daughter’s plight but she was not allowed to meet her daughter who was also not provided with timely medical treatment.

The girl was recovered after the SHC bench ordered the police to conduct a raid on the house of Bashir who was detained in this connection.

Both the girl and Bashir were produced before the court on Friday.