HYDERABAD:
The Mirpurkhas police recovered three girls from the captivity of a policeman on Monday evening. The girls were kidnapped as punishment for an open marriage.
DSP CIA Kareem Bux Baloch told the media on Tuesday that they arrested Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Bahadur Marri and Afzal Marri from whom the police recovered Aasia, 17, Nazia, 13 and Rehana, 12, all Manganhar by caste.
Both the girls and the police denied being raped, but the girls were allegedly beaten during their captivity. The DSP said they had also lodged an FIR naming nine persons whose names, besides around 20 unknown persons, under sections 364 and 365 of the Pakistan Penal Code and 6/7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Around 40-50 men armed with guns and axes, led by Marri, allegedly abducted the girls from their village under the jurisdiction of Dilbar Mahar police station on May 17. Men from the Manganhar community were also beaten in the incident.
Ali Nawaz Manganhar, who was injured, told media that Marris wanted to put pressure on the man who married a woman from their family without their consent. Marris accused Manganhars of helping the man their wife had “eloped” with.
The Manganhars were also arrested and booked in an FIR of kidnapping, but it was later proven to be a case of voluntary marriage. SHO Ghazi Khan Rajar admitted that the police took a day to collect the girls as the accused were changing places.
Kidnapping of girls and women and honor killings have suddenly become an everyday phenomenon in Sindh, as police seem to prepare for action only when an incident becomes high-profile. The burning of an entire village in Jacobabad district on May 5, for which the FIR was lodged after 10 days, is a recent example of this inaction.
