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| India-Pakistan |
| Child 'marriage' arranged to end feud |
| 2008-11-01 |
| Background on "Vavi" TWO men were released from custody in Pakistan yesterday after they were arrested on suspicion of organising the wedding of their two young children to end their families feuding, their lawyer said. Police arrested the pair and a marriage registrar in the Nazimabad area of the southern city of Karachi on Thursday, amid claims that a four-year-old girl and seven-year-old boy were being wedded unlawfully. A court in Karachi on yesterday granted the men bail, lawyer Maqbool-ur-Rehman said outside the court. "Judge Zahida Perveen ordered to release the three men against a personal bond of 3000 rupees ($45) and give the children's custody to their parents,'' he said. The arrested men said the wedding was meant to end a feud between the two families. "We had some old family disputes which we had decided to settle by getting our children wedded,'' the girl's father said. The boy's father added: "We were just registering the marriage of our children to settle our disputes. We had decided the real wedding would be held when the couple reaches the marriageable age.'' Child marriage or "vani'', which is condemned by campaigners as a violation of human rights, is banned in predominantly Muslim Pakistan. The minimum legal age for marriage is 18 for men and 16 for girls. |
| Posted by:tipper |