A class eight student narrowly escaped a forced child marriage with the aid of her schoolteacher in Brahmanbaria’s Akhaura upazila on Friday.
The girl named Soheda Akhter, 13, is a resident of Ranikhar village and a student of SA Hannan Secondary and Technical High School.
On Friday around 8pm, after the groom along with his relatives arrived at her place to perform the wedding rituals, she eloped with the help of her classmates and took shelter at her teacher Mujibur Rahman’s house in the same village.
Union Parishad member Syed Jahangir Alam said Soheda’s father Murshed Miya had fixed her marriage with Akram Miya, a resident of Gazipur and currently an immigrant in Malaysia, despite Soheda’s protests.
After Mujibur Rahman informed the matter to Akhaura Upazila Nirbahi Officer Ahsan Habib and Additional Police Super Md Zahidul Islam, they sent a police team to Soheda’s place.
Sensing the presence of police Akram and his relatives fled away.
Dhorkhar police outpost In-Charge Sub-Inspector Mujibur Rahman said the girl was handed over to her parents in presence of other elderly people of the village and her parents signed a bond of not marrying her before the age of 18.
Schoolteacher Mujibur Rahman said: “To spread awareness, I frequently discuss the hazards of child marriage with my students in class. I told them to inform me if any underage girl was forced into marriage. This is the reason why they came to me and I took initiative to stop the marriage.”
