“Three young girls were allegedly abducted and beaten simply because someone in their community married by choice. The shocking incident from Mirpurkhas once again exposes the dark reality of honour-based violence in Sindh.”

DSP CIA Kareem Bux Baloch told the media on Tuesday that they have arrested Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Bahadur Marri and Afzal Marri, from whom the police recovered 17-year-old Aasia, 13-year-old Nazia and 12-year-old Rehana, all Manganhar by caste.

The girls and the cops denied occurrence of rape, but the girls were allegedly beaten during captivity. The DSP said that they had also registered a FIR naming nine persons and about two dozen unknown persons under sections 364 and 365 of Pakistan Penal Code and 6/7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

On May 17, Marri allegedly kidnapped the girls from their village in the jurisdiction of Dilbar Mahar police station with about 40-to-50-armed men with weapons and axes. In that incident too, members of the Manganhar community were beaten.

The injured Ali Nawaz Manganhar told the media that the Marris wanted to threaten the man who married a woman of their family without their consent. Marrish has accused Manganhars of aiding the man with whom their woman ‘eloped’.
Manganhars were also arrested and booked in a FIR of kidnapping but later it proved to be a case of free-will marriage.

It took the police a day to recover the girls as the accused persons were changing places, said SHO Ghazi Khan Rajar.

No fear of being punished

No fear of Law

No fear of destroying someone’s life

Cases like these raise serious questions about women’s safety.

The abduction of girls and women and honour killings have suddenly become a daily occurrence in Sindh with the police seemingly waking up to the situation only when an incident becomes a high-profile news story. A recent instance of inaction is the burning of an entire village in Jacobabad district on May 5, whose FIR was lodged after 10 days.

 
Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)