KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Wednesday handed over the custody of an underage Hindu girl, who was allegedly kidnapped and forcibly converted before her illegal child marriage, to her parents.

Ramila, alias Sara, was allegedly kidnapped in the Shershah area by suspect Mohammad Rashid, who purportedly forcibly converted her before illegally marrying her despite the fact that she was underage.

On Wednesday, the 15-year-old girl was produced before the judicial magistrate (West) by in-charge of a shelter home, where the court had previously sent her.

At the outset of the hearing, the girl informed the magistrate that she was willing to go with her parents, instead of her purported husband, out of her free will.

Underage girl opted to go with her family after her free-will marriage declared illegal

After recording her statement, the magistrate handed her the custody over to her parents.

According to police, Mohammad Rashid had allegedly abducted Ramila and later illegally solemnised a child marriage with her after forcibly converting her to Islam.

Later, the girl was recovered by the police after her father, Teja Maheshwari, lodged a case of his daughter’s kidnapping against the suspect.

On a previous date, the investigating officer had produced the girl before the magistrate and she had deposed that she had left her parents’ home and married Rashid after converting to Islam out of her own free will.

However, the magistrate had sent the girl to the shelter home and also ordered medical examination to determine her actual age. Later, a medical board declared her age to be around 15 years.

A kidnapping case was registered at the Pak Colony police station on the complaint of the victim’s father.

Charge sheet filed

Police filed a charge sheet against a man who allegedly killed his young daughter in the name of so-called honour on the premises of the City Courts premises.

Suspect Ameer Jan Mehsud was booked and arrested for shooting to death his 19-year-old daughter Hajira when she was brought by the police to the court to record her statement after she purportedly solemnised free-will marriage on Jan 23.

The investigating officer of the case filed an interim investigation report, under Section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code detailing the investigation conducted so far into the incident.

Social media was stormed with condemnation of the killing of the young girl even at the heavily-guarded place like the courts and state’s failure in protecting the women from the deeply ingrained so-called cultural practice.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2023