April 05, 2008	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 27, 1429

MIANWALI, April 4: The Isakhel police caught an Afghan couple fleeing a refugee camp on Thursday night to marry by choice after reaching Afghanistan, on suspicions that they were ‘terrorists’.

The couple was travelling on a minibus towards a destination where they could lead a happy life according to their aspirations when the police held them at Dara Tang check post, some 70 kilometres away from here, on Mianwali–Laki Marwat boundary between the provinces of Punjab and NWFP.

The Kalabagh police are detaining the couple, without formally arresting them, possibly on two counts; first, the police are yet unable to ascertain what crime the couple had committed involving police cognisance, and second, what would be the fate of the boy and the girl if they are released.

In case they are handed back to their elders at the refugee camp, it is very much likely that their heads will be chopped off according to Afghan traditions and customs.

Feroze Shah and his 16-year-old cousin Bibi Ghaman developed an affair while residing at Kot-Chandna Refugee Camp but circumstances prevented them from exchanging vows publicly. Thus, they decided to flee the refugee camp and travel to Helmand town in Afghanistan to live a free yet happy life.

They boarded a coach from Kot-Chandna and when the vehicle they were travelling on reached Dara Tang check post, the Isakhel police personnel frisked the passengers and considering the duo ‘potential terrorists’ held them and told them to abandon their journey and join preliminary interrogation. Later, they were handed over to Kalabagh police for further investigations.

During initial probe, it was revealed that they were not terrorists and in fact they were ‘lovebirds’.

The police are now in dilemma to decide the couple’s fate. Sources said that in first instance, the police intended to hand over the couple to their elders at the refugee camp.

At that moment, Prof. Ziaullah, an activist of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, who was present at the police station in connection with some personal affairs, resisted the move on the plea that Afghan tribesmen would certainly kill the couple according to their social norms.

He also referred the last month ‘unnoticed’ incident in which a couple was shot dead at a refugee camp for committing similar ‘blunder’.

Inspector Zulfiqar Ali Chheena, the Kalabagh station house officer (SHO), told Dawn that the couple would be handed over to their parents only after ensuring the safety of their life. However, the SHO did not agree to shift the girl to Mianwali’s Darul Aman (shelter house). He also did not disclose under what law the police were detaining the couple, especially when they had neither committed any offence nor they were wanted in any case.

Kalabagh Circle DSP Fida Hussain told Dawn that any decision in this connection would be taken according to the law and guidelines issued by the police and administration high-ups.

Sources said that Afghan elders too are pressing the police to hand over the couple to them and then they would decide their fate according their customs.