A minor girl has been rescued from being forcibly married to a 33-year-old man after allegedly being sold for Rs 1,30,000 in Pakistan's Sindh province, police said today.
A police team raided the marriage ceremony last night after being tipped off that an under-age girl was being sold to an older man, said Khalid Paracha, a senior police official in Umerkot district.
Station House Officer Vijay Khatri said that the ceremony was being held in Bakhtawar colony in the district.
"The groom's mother, who is from a village in Thar, has claimed that the parents of the girl had sold her for Rs 1,30,000," Khatri said.
"We are not aware of any law that prohibits underage marriage," she claimed.
Police took the minor girl into custody and arrested the man while others present at the scene managed to flee.
Khatri said a case under the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act 2013 has been registered against the parents of the girl, the man's family and the Qazi, Maulvi Qurban Ali, who was performing the marriage.
Khatri said that the girl will be produced in court and raids were being conducted to arrest the remaining accused.
Child marriage is a punishable offense in Sindh under the act. According to the Act, a child marriage includes any marriage where one of the contracting parties is less than 18 years of age.
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