QUETTA/CHAMAN: A 60-year-old man accused of contracting a marriage with a four-year-old girl from Chaman has fled to Afghanistan, according to Balochistan police. The girl’s father and the accused man’s brother have been arrested.
Police say their investigation has linked the case to the killing of the girl’s 14-year-old sister, who was already married into the accused man’s family and was found dead in Kuchlak on September 7. Her husband — the accused man’s son — has been arrested on a murder charge.
Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti has ordered an investigation into all aspects of the case. It is one of the most serious cases yet to test the Balochistan Child Marriages Restraint Act 2025, which since November last year has made any marriage of a person under 18 void from the outset and the offence non-compoundable.
According to police, the investigation into the alleged marriage of the four-year-old uncovered a direct link to the killing of her 14-year-old sister on September 7. The older girl had been married into the accused man’s family; her husband is his son. He has been arrested on a murder charge. The accused man himself, the 60-year-old alleged groom, has fled to Afghanistan, police say. The four-year-old’s father and the accused man’s brother are in custody.
Speaking in custody, the father has given police an account that, if true, describes a family coerced into handing over its daughters. He says his 14-year-old daughter faced violence in her in-laws’ home and that her husband’s family repeatedly pressed for another of his young daughters. Last month, he says, the four-year-old’s marriage to the accused man was agreed against a payment of Rs2.5 million. Before any money changed hands, he says, the accused demanded his eight-year-old daughter instead. When he refused, his married 14-year-old daughter was beaten to death in Kuchlak on September 7.
None of this has yet been tested in court, and the father is himself a suspect. Police say they are investigating who else was involved in both incidents, and that steps are being taken to protect the young girl and pursue legal action.
Early reports claimed the child was two years old; police now give her age as four. Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti took notice and ordered an investigation into every aspect of the case. Chaman Deputy Commissioner Habib Bangulzai confirmed the father’s arrest and said the district administration was coordinating with Quetta police on registering an FIR, adding that the killing in Kuchlak was being linked to the marriage. The chief minister’s adviser for information, Shahid Rind, said no one involved would be treated as above the law and that the child’s safety and wellbeing were the priority.
Some reports give the murdered sister’s age as 15 rather than 14. Police have not said where the four-year-old is now living or who has custody of her.
Until last year, Balochistan had no law of its own setting 18 as the minimum age of marriage. The Balochistan Child Marriages Restraint Act 2025, passed by the provincial assembly on November 14 and in force since November 18, changed that. It defines anyone under 18 as a child and states that the appearance of puberty is no ground for treating a person as an adult. Any child marriage is void from the outset. The offences are cognisable and non-compoundable, which means they cannot be settled privately between families.
The penalties are specific. An adult man who contracts a child marriage, and anyone who arranges, promotes, performs or assists it, faces two to three years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs100,000 to Rs200,000. Nikah registrars and clerics must verify both parties’ national identity cards before solemnising a marriage; negligence can bring up to a year in prison.
The Chaman case, if the police account holds, involves almost every offence the Act created, with charges extending to an adult groom, a father who agreed, and whoever performed or witnessed the nikah. It will also show whether prosecutors pursue the facilitators as well as the principal accused. Balochistan’s law followed Sindh and the Islamabad Capital Territory; Punjab has not yet raised its marriage age for girls from 16, although it has tightened rules for nikah registrars, and the Lahore High Court has ordered a fresh probe in a Lahore child marriage case this month.
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