To legalise child marriage!

Under-aged Sadia was married to a young man of Shrirampur village, showing her to be marriageable by a registrar maintaining a fake register in Dumki upazila of the district.

Sixteen-year-old Sadia Akhter, daughter of Mohammad Ali of Jhatra village, was married to Rasel Mridha, 22, son of Anwer Hossain Mridha, on December 9 by marriage registrar Md Shafiqul Islam of Shrirampur union. In his book No-1 on page 90, Sadia was shown to be of marriageable age.

Sadia sat for the Junior Dakhil Examination this year from Khatra Jalisha Dakhil Madrasa and her date of birth is January 1, 2000.

In an another case, Sharmin Akhter, 16, daughter of Abdul Jalil Talukder, will sit for the SSC examination in 2017 from Uttar Shrirampur High School. Though she is only 15-year-old (her date of birth is January 15, 2001) she was married to Khondokar Saleh Ahmed of Muradia village on August 31 this year. This marriage was also registered by Shafiqul Islam (Book No 2, Page 58).

Like in the cases of Sadia and Sharmin, many under-aged girls got married, and the marriage registrar registered those marriages illegally.

After getting information about the marriage of Sadia, Dumki UNO Md Hafizur Rahman rushed to the spot, but the marriage had been registered by then. The UNO later seized two marriage registration books from Shafiqul's house. He went through both marriage registers and found a lot of irregularities.

Many pages were blank and new marriage registers had been opened before the previous ones were filled. New books can be opened only after the previous register becomes full.

Shafiqul appointed some other people to work as his assistants, which is illegal as he cannot appoint anybody for registering marriages, and each assistant used a separate register.

Moreover, Shafiqul is serving as assistant registrar at Patuakhali Science and Technology University (PSTU), violating the law, the UNO said.

According to Bangladesh Gazette April-10/2011, a marriage registrar cannot work anywhere else except a non-government school, college or madrasa. But, violating this rule, Shafiqul took appointment as Shrirampur union marriage registrar from the law ministry about 20 years ago, a source said.

Narrating these irregularities, the UNO sent a complaint to the ministry concerned on December 20.

Shafiqul said, "I am not involved in the matter, but one of my assistants did it." He did not answer when asked if he could take an assistant for this job.

"I seized two marriage registers from Shafiqul Islam's house and found a lot of irregularities," the UNO said, adding that the registrar should be removed.