The Assam government will start the second round of intensified crackdown on child marriage and in the next 10 days, the state police will arrest those who have married underage girls, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Sunday.

Speaking at the national executive meet of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Mahila Morcha in Guwahati, Sarma also said that his government will bring a law by December to prohibit polygamy in the state.

At least 5,000 offenders were arrested in the first round of crackdown against child marriage in February this year, the chief minister said, adding that the drive was kept on hold till the completion of the G20 Summit in New Delhi.

“Our drive will continue now as we were waiting for the G20 Summit to conclude. In the next 10 days, our police will arrest at least 2,000 to 3,000 offenders who have married minor girls,” the chief minister said. “…We are not going to spare anyone in this regard.”

The BJP leader also said that both the measures — crackdown on child marriage and law against polygamy — are to stop the exploitation of women, especially of a “particular community”, who are married off at nine years, become mothers by 12 years and then are forced to accept their husbands marrying more than once.

“We won’t allow multiple marriages because our sisters suffer due to this. By December, we will bring a law to ban this legally,” Sarma said.

In May, the state government constituted an expert committee to examine competence of the legislature to enact a law to end polygamy. The panel, which was asked to scrutinise the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Act, 1937 read with Article 25 of the Constitution of India, submitted its report on June 8, saying the state does have the power to enact such a law.

To be sure, 2011 census data shows that polygamy among men is not a phenomenon which is restricted to Muslims alone, and that the number of currently married women is greater than currently married men among all religious groups.