Compiled by C. ARUNO, BENJAMIN LEE and R. ARAVINTHAN
A MAN in Pakistan sold his 12-year-old daughter for 500,000 rupees (RM8,453) to a 72-year-old senior citizen who wanted a wife, Malaysia Nanban reported.
But when the elderly man asked for the girl’s hand in marriage, the police intervened and put a stop to it.
The old man was arrested and charged along with an accomplice who was apparently officiating the marriage. The girl’s father ran away.
Child marriages are against the law in the South Asian nation, but many such nuptials are still occurring.
Authorities in Pakistan have cracked down on at least three cases of child marriages in recent weeks.
These involved a 40-something man trying to marry an 11-year-old girl in Punjab, a 50-year-old businessman who wanted to wed a minor in Sindh, and a 70-year-old man in the Swat district who intended to have a 13-year-old girl as his wife.
These men were all arrested.
No coercion was reported in any of the cases. The father of the 13-year-old girl in the third case was also nabbed.
The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.
