August 02, 2008	Saturday	Rajab 29, 1429

RAWALPINDI, Aug 1: A local magistrate sent a 13-year-old girl who said she had run away from a brothel in Jhelum to Darul Aman here on Friday.

Magistrate Chaudhry Toufique Ahmed said the girl, identified by her initials KJ, should be kept in Darul Aman until her real father was traced out.

Advocate Syed Almas Shah who works for a free legal aid NGO brought KJ to the magistrate’s court.

She alleged in the court that her stepfather Shaukat had deceitfully sold her to a woman in Jhelum, named Parveen, who forced her into prostitution. She said she fled the life of sin on Thursday and reached Rawalpindi.

KJ suspected her mother Allah Rakhi and maternal grandmother Shabana were party to the deception and did not want to be returned to them.

Advocate Almas Shah told Dawn that an old woman, who had taken pity on the unfortunate girl, had brought her to him for help.

KJ said her real father Javaid lived in Lahore where he sold qima bharay naan (bread with minced meat filling) for a living.

Meanwhile, Judge Chaudhry Habibur Rehman of Anti-Terrorism Court-I set aside the application of six men seeking removal of terrorism charges against them. The charges related to their alleged involvement in a dispute over the possession of a mosque in Chotla Jhelum in which three people were killed.

The six, with a seventh accomplice absconding, allegedly had attacked the mosque on May 23 this year with the intent to take its possession. A clash followed in which three men were killed and many injured.