ISLAMABAD: An underage girl and her brother have gone into hiding after the girl accused her father and uncle of forcing her into a marriage.

Police said the girl registered a case with the police against her father, her uncle and the man they tried to force her to marry for threatening her.

The case was registered with Koral police under PPC sections 506(ii) and 498(b).

The girl, 15, is a 10th grade student who was living with her family in Koral. She alleged that her father forced her to marry a 45-year-old man who was already married and has four children.

She told police the man drives a taxi and peddles drugs, and owns a number of properties.

Police quoted her as saying her parents were forcing her to marry the man, and called a maulvi to the house to arrange a nikkah on Jan 13.

She said she refused to sign the marriage certificate, after which her elder brother took her to his home in Sara-i-Kharbooza the same day.

The next day the man, his sibling and his mother came to her brother’s house and told him to hand over his ‘wife’.

When her brother refused, the man’s family threatened them.

The girl was then brought to the women’s police station by her brother, and the police took her to Darul Aman.

Her father visited her at the Darul Aman a few days later and assured her he would not force her to marry the man. She returned home with her father on Jan 23.

Police said four days later, her father tried to forcefully send her to the man, telling her that he married her to the man “as Wali”.

The girl again sought her brother’s help, and they went into hiding as their relatives and the man were searching for them.

Police quoted the girl as saying they had threatened the siblings and tried to kidnap her and take her out of the city.

When contacted, Koral Station House Officer Saifullah said the girl was safe and sound with her brother. He said she had alleged that her father sold her to the man for a significant sum of money.

The SHO said both the girl’s father and the man he forced her to marry were from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said they had left their homes as, when the police approached them as part of the investigation, their houses were locked from the outside.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2019