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December 31, 2008	Wednesday	Muharram 02,1430

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KHANEWAL, Dec 30: Police have arrested a landowner and seized the girl he wedded under the notorious vani tradition, while efforts are under way for the arrest of his cousin and recovery of the girl he wedded under the same tradition to teach their tenants a lesson in Nawan Shehr locality of Kabirwala tehsil.

The girls, 14-year-old Kalsoom and 12-year-old Sumera, were kidnapped by landowners Rabnawaz Thaheem and Imran Thaheem and their men. Later, Rabnawaz wedded Kalsoom and Imran wedded Sumera. The black act is allegedly reaction to the affair of the girls’ brother with the wife of Rabnawaz.

The incident came to the fore when someone reported it to the Chief Minister’s Complaint Cell, which immediately directed Khanewal District Police Officer Muhammad Kamran Khan to arrest the culprits and recover the girls.

According to the FIR registered with the local police under section 310-A/506-B of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of Muhammad Jafar of Basti Dhara, his brother Muhammad Sadiq was working as tenant of Rabnawaz and Imran for a long time. Rabnawaz’s family members caught Sadiq’s son Ansar chatting with his (Rabnawaz’s) wife in the wee hours of Dec 27.

They suspected Ansar had an affair with his ‘master’s’ wife. In reaction, Rabnawaz, Imran, Bashir, Ashfaq and Qaisar barged in Ansar’s house and lifted all members of his family and took them to their outhouse.

They told Sadiq to get his daughters married to Rabnawaz and Imran or face death. Sadiq succumbed to their pressure and allowed Rabnawaz to marry Kalsoom and Imran to marry Sumera.

“We have seized Kalsoom and arrested Rabnawaz. We are trying to trace Sumera and Imran. We have registered a case against them under the vani law,” says the DPO.

Stern action will be taken against the culprits after medical examination of the girls is done, the DPO said, adding that the family of the poor girls was initially not ready to register a case against the landowners because of their fear.