August 26, 2008	Tuesday	Sha'aban 23, 1429

KARACHI, Aug 25: The two minor girls reportedly kidnapped by their uncle under the tribal custom of vani, were produced step an additional district and sessions judge on Monday following their recovery from Kala Dhaka, a tribal area of district Mansehra.

The judge later ordered that the two sisters be handed over to their mother.

Zainab, 8, and, Sara, 10, stated that they were kidnapped by their uncle Shah Tareen, with the help of Ishaq and Sanober from Karachi.

Later, Ishaq took them to Kala Dhaka and detained them at his home, they said adding they were forced to serve as maids.

The girls, who arrived here on Sunday night, recorded their statements before the court. A letter of the DCO and political agent of the tribal area regarding recovery of the girls was also produced before the court.

The applicant and mother of the girls told the court that the police party sent by the Sindh home department on a court order to Mansehra for the recovery of her daughters had just delivered court orders to the DCO and immediately came back to Karachi, adding she had personally approached the DCO who deputed a teshildar to negotiate with the tribal people for the recovery of the girls.

She requested the court to take action against the police team for not complying with the court orders.

She further maintained that the dispute between the two groups had not yet settled and the members of the aggrieved party were present in the city and feared that her daughters might be kidnapped again and asked the court to provide them security.

The judge directed the police party constituted for the recovery of the girls, to appear before the court on Aug 29 and asked the SHO of Gulbahar to provide security to the applicant.

On a pervious hearing, the police party stated in its report that the staff of Oghi police station had refused to cooperate with them by maintaining that the area of Kala Dhaka, where girls were detained, was in the jurisdiction of Provincially Administered Tribal Areas and said a political tehsildar of Kala Dhaka Jamshad Khan was negotiating with the local Jirga and the girls are likely to be recovered soon. The report also said that girls were in the custody of Ishaq, a member of aggrieved party, and was nominated in the FIR registered in SITE police station.

The police team was sent to Mansehra on court orders following an application submitted by the mother of the girls through Shahbaz Sahotra, advocate, stating that her daughters were kidnapped by their uncle Shah Tareen following a Jirga decision at their native town in district Mansehra and requested for their recovery.

The applicant stated that Shah Tareen had married Jannat against her parents’ will in their native town in district Mansehra. To settle the dispute between the two families, a jirga asked Mr Tareen to hand over his nieces to the aggrieved party in compensation.

Subsequently, he allegedly kidnapped the two girls and handed them over to a jirga member, Sanober, in Karachi and later to a member of the aggrieved party, Ishaq, in Mansehra. The police had arrested Shah Tareen and Sanober following registration a case against them at SITE police station. Ishaq was also nominated in the FIR.