DADU: An 18-year-old woman tried to kill herself after she sounded an SOS but police reached her house, in Danagar village of Dadu taluka, a bit late to stop her forced marriage on Friday.

Soonh Mangi was rushed to the Dadu Civil Hospital, where doctors believed she was under influence of some pesticide she might have taken to kill herself.

According to woman police station SHO Benazir Jamali, Ms Mangi had sent a message to Dadu SSP Shabbir Sethar telling him that she was being forced to marry an aged man and confined to a room in her house.

The SHO said she in her distress call sought immediate intervention to rescue her.

However, the SHO said, a woman police team headed by her rushed to the house on the SSP’s directive but found the woman lying in a serious condition. The would-be-groom, Wazir Mangi, had already escaped, she added.The SHO said that Gulsher Mangi, an uncle of the woman, was taken into custody for interrogation and a hunt was on for Wazir Mangi and other suspects involved in the forced marriage.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2016