BAHAWALNAGAR: The police arrested five people in a vani case where a 13-year old girl was married with a man on the orders of a village council in Basti Hamdara on August 29.

The police said Gulshan, daughter of Wazir Ali, was married to Shahzad Aslam on the orders of panchayat to settle love marriage of girl’s brother with Nadra, daughter of Aslam, on August 28.

According to the family of the girl, on August 29, armed people abducted Gulshan from their home and held a panchayat in the village. The panchayat decided to marry the underage girl with Shahzad (the brother of Nadra) and Nikah was performed. The family said their daughter escaped her captor’s house after three days and they brought her to the Donga Bonga police. The police did not take any action. After the matter was highlighted by the media, the police lodged an FIR against 21 people, including the nikah khawan, of them 14 were nominated.

According to the Donga Bonga police, they received a written complaint of the incident on September 18 and registered the FIR on September 20.

The police said the other accused would also be arrested soon and a special police team has been constituted.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2018