August 30, 2006	Wednesday	Sha'aban 5, 1427

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SWABI, Aug 29: Nine people, seven of them jirga members, were arrested from the courtroom of the District and Sessions Judge here on Tuesday on charges of giving a minor girl in Swara in marriage to a rival family for resolution of an honour-related dispute between them.

The seven jirga members, including a union council nazim, were summoned by the judge to appear in the court where a pre-arrest bail petition of two people accused of kidnapping a girl had been pending.

The court dismissed the pre-arrest bail of the two accused and also ordered the arrest of the seven jirga members.

The jirga members were identified as Dagai union council nazim Ishtiaq Khan, Sultan Gujar, Manawar Gujar, Mira Gujar, Rahim Dad, Mumtaz and Muzaffar. The other two accused are Irfan Khan and Zakir Khan.

Reliable sources said that the dispute between the two families had started a few years back when Irfan Khan and Zakir Khan kidnapped the daughter of Mohammad Ali. Later, a jirga was constituted to resolve the issue.

The jirga resolved the issue according to the Swara custom and decided to give the hand of an eight-year-old girl of the accused family in marriage to the rival family to end enmity between them.

The sources said that the jirga had decided that a girl belonging to the family of Irfan and Zakir would be given in Swara to Ali’s son. Later, it transpired that the Swara girl was only eight years old.

The jirga had also decided that Irfan and Zakir’s families pay Rs60,000 to Ali’s family as compensation. But, the amount did not reach the aggrieved family, the sources said.

The case came to the limelight after the two accused submitted an application for bail before arrest in the court of District and Sessions Judge Khalid Amin.

On the pre-arrest bail application, the court ordered the district police officer to conduct an inquiry that found that the issue between the two families had been resolved through the Swara custom.

“We submitted findings of the inquiry in the court so that further action could be taken. The court ordered production of the jirga members and we brought them to the court,” said an official.

The court also recorded the statements of the cleric, Maulana Ibrahim, who had solemnised the nikah, and Shaukat Ali, who registered it. Later, the court ordered that the jirga members be arrested.