Larkana police’s Women and Child Protection Cell (WCPC), along with other officials, conducted a raid and stopped a forced child marriage involving two teenagers in Khero Dero village of the district on Friday. A 13-year-old girl was being forced into marriage with her 16-year-old cousin when WCPC officials, the SHO of Women Police Station Larkana and the SHO of Lashari Police Station reached the spot, according to a statement by Child Protection Officer Larkana Gada Hussain Abbasi. Naween Mangi, who runs the Ali Hasan Mangi Memorial Trust in Upper Sindh, alerted the police about the marriage. After finding out about the girl being “forcibly married off,” Mangi said she tried to intervene through the community to stop the marriage. When that did not work, she involved the district police. The WCPC statement added that the groom and his family fled upon police’s arrival. “The girl, along with her parents, was brought to the Women Police Station Larkana for her safe custody,” the statement added. The girl’s parents were counselled regarding the legal age of marriage, police said. Officials also obtained a written surety from the parents that they would not marry their daughter until she turns 18, according to police. “Police was proactive and helpful,” Mangi told _Dawn_. The girl expressed willingness to stay with her parents, and she was handed over to them, the statement said further. The statement further said that if the girl had refused to stay with her parents, the case would have been produced in court and she would have been sent to a Darul Amaan. Mangi told _Dawn_ that she would not have felt comfortable sending the teenage girl to a Darul Amaan, owing to concerns about the living conditions in such facilities. She said she was concerned about the girl’s safety and that her organisation is closely monitoring the girl and her family, adding that police had not offered protection to the girl but remained in contact with her. According to Mangi, the groom’s family has publicly stated that the two teenagers are married and that the girl is missing. However, the girl’s parents have confirmed in a video statement that she is at home and not missing. Mangi acknowledged that despite counselling and obtaining written surety from the girl’s parents, the risk of another attempt at underage marriage remains because the custom is deeply entrenched in society. She added that her organisation is closely monitoring the family, and is “very confident” that the girl’s rights will be protected. According to the United Nations’ International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef), Pakistan is home to over 19 million child brides, with nearly 1 in 6 young women married before the age of 18 and as many as 4.8m girls married before the age of 15.

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