August 29, 2003	Friday	Jumadi-us-Sani 30, 1424

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PESHAWAR, Aug 28: The Civic Awareness Promotion Society has expressed its concern over handing over of two girls in Swara to a rival group for settling a dispute and has asked the government to take action against the persons responsible for the incident.

In a press release issued here on Thursday, the programme officer of the civic society, Ayesha Israr said that it was inhuman that little girls were being sacrificed for misdeeds of their male family members.

According to a news report, in Marhati Banda, Nowshera, three persons —  Saifullah,  Kareemullah and Saraf Khan —  abducted daughter of a watchman, Usman Khan. They allegedly gang raped the girl and later on sold her to a person in Punjab. However, the girl escaped from their clutches and reported the incident to the police, following which the three persons were arrested.

A local jirga decided that sisters of Saifullah and Kareemullah would be handed over to Usman in Swara. One of the girls would be married to the son of Usman, whereas the other girl would be married to Usman’s brother.

Ms Ayesha said that neither Islam nor any law of the land permitted victimization of girls for settling disputes.

She said that the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal’s government had claimed that it would provide justice to every segment of society, but had turned a blind eye towards inhuman practices like Swara.

She said that the provincial government should stop implementation of the jirga’s decision so that in future helpless women could be saved from being sacrificed.