DERA GHAZI KHAN, Nov 29: A village jury has declared the years old marriage un-Islamic and illegal following a startling claim of the bridegroom’s mother and directed the groom to hand over the girl to her parents after paying fine.

The groom, on the other hand, continues to dispute the claim of his mother-in-law that he and his wife who loved each other were not fed on the same breast.

Reports said a panchayat was held the other day to resolve the dispute created over the marriage of Amir and Salma who were engaged in their infancy 17 years ago by their family. The dispute arose when the bridegroom’s mother claimed that she had breastfed Amir in his infancy.

According to Islamic jurisprudence, if a girl and a boy are breastfed by a woman as infants, they become Razaee sister and brother and hence can’t marry each other.

The panchayat declared the marriage un-Islamic and directed the groom’s family to hand over Salma to her parents besides imposing Rs200,000 fine on them.

However, the lovebirds rejected the decision and insisted that the claim made by the bridegroom’s mother Fatima Bibi was false.

Earlier, Fatima Bibi had got an edict from local cleric Mufti Karim Bakhsh who declared the marriage un-Islamic. While the Saddar police had registered two cases against groom Amir — one on the charge of kidnapping Salma and the other for violating Islamic law.

The police raided various places to arrest the groom but could not succeed as the couple had gone into hiding.

When contacted, SP (investigation) Saadullah said the girl had preferred to stay with her husband of her own free will and his father had confirmed it. He said he would thoroughly investigate the case soon.