HYDERABAD:
Mirpurkhas police on Monday night recovered three girls from the captivity of a police constable. The girls were kidnapped as punishment for marrying of free will.
CIA DSP 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 that they had been raped, but the girls were allegedly beaten during captivity. The DSP said they also filed an FIR nominating nine named persons besides around two dozen unknowns under sections 364 and 365 of the Pakistan Penal Code and 6/7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Around 40 to 50 men armed with guns and axes, led by Marri, allegedly abducted girls from their village in the jurisdiction of Dilbar Mahar Police Station on May 17. Men from the Manganhar community were also beaten in that incident.
Ali Nawaz Manganhar, who was injured, told the media that Marris wanted to put pressure on the man who had married a woman in his family without her consent. Marris accused Manganhars of helping the man his wife “eloped” with.
Manganhars was also arrested and charged with kidnapping, but it was later proven to be a case of voluntary marriage. SHO Ghazi Khan Rajar acknowledged that it took the police a day to recover the girls because the accused were changing places.
Kidnapping of girls and women and honor killings have suddenly become a daily occurrence in Sindh as the police are seen to swing into action only when an incident becomes a high-profile news story. The burning of an entire village in Jacobabad district on May 5, for which FIR was lodged after 10 days, is a recent example of inaction.
