A missing teenage girl in Karachi’s Abbas Town has been found to be allegedly married in Punjab’s Rahim Yar Khan, reminding the citizens of the underage girl Dua Zehra’s kidnapping and marriage case.
Asma, an eighth-standard student, did not return home since she went to meet her friend on the second day of Eid (April 11), the family told Aaj News.
This is the third such reported case in Pakistan after a 13-year-old girl from Sultanabad village in Gilgit in March and a Hindu teenage girl in Shaheed Benazir Abad district were abducted and forced into marriage.
Underage marriage is one of the major issues faced by minorities in the country, the media reports show. Dua Zehra case was one of the prominent in the recent past. Last year, the Sindh High Court allowed the girl to go home with her parents and directed her parents to provide complete protection to her and submit a surety of Rs1 million.
Asma’s family members stated that they filed a complaint about their missing daughter at the Sachal Police Station after they failed to find her. They claimed that the police station did not take “immediate steps” for the recovery of their daughter.
The complaint was registered under Section 365 B (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel for marriage etc) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The family doubts a water supplier named Asif allegedly enticed Asma into leaving the house. According to the family, they traced Asif’s elder brother Shabbir and handed him over to the police.
Shabbir confessed that his younger brother took the girl to Rahim Yar Khan, they said and claimed that police later released him.
When Shabbir was caught, the suspect’s father contacted the girl’s family via telephone. He also allowed the family to speak to the teenage girl.
The family members fear that Asma “was not safe” and refused to accept her underage marriage. They reiterated their concerns related to their daughter and demanded people involved in it should be arrested. They also demanded the recovery of their daughter.
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Police confirmed that Ghulam Shabbir is the brother of Asif, but added that his name was not mentioned in the first information report.
Shabbir is a rickshaw driver and was released on the bail of a person named Basharat, they said and confirmed that the girl allegedly married Asif in Rahim Yar Khan.
They claimed to send a police party for the arrest of the suspect and recovery of the girl in Punjab’s city. For this, they would get permission from the Home Department.
