Toddlers forced to marry as adultery punishment

A Pakistani woman who committed adultery has been forced to marry her four-year-old son to her lover's three-year-old daughter.

The deal was part of a punishment imposed by village elders.

Mumtaz Mai was also beaten and had her hair shorn off on orders of a traditional village council in Chaddar Bhanda.

The village is 280 miles south of Islamabad.

The 45-year-old has been arrested as have two of the men who carried out the punishment, said police spokesman Riaz Ahmed.

Adultery carries a maximum punishment of death by stoning in Pakistan, but such punishments have never been enforced.

The forced child marriage was meant to compensate Mai's family for her lost honour.

The council was convened by Mai's husband, Mohammed Hussein, to punish her for the affair with Ghulam Mustafa.

After the verdict, several men including Mai's brother beat her and cut off her hair. The brother and the council leader who issued the sentence were both arrested by police on charges of public humiliation, Mr Ahmed said.