MUZAFFARGARH: The tradition of visiting anyone’s sins on an innocent soul continues as a panchayat at Mochiwala’s Rohallanwali village decreed that a three-year-old girl be married as ‘vani’ to settle an alleged elopement case.

The police said Sohail tied the knot with Neko Mai, daughter of Manzoor Husain Mochi, and the couple fled three weeks ago.

Manzoor sought help of a jury of elders -- Ali Mochi, Ghulam Fareed and 20 others -- who decided that Sohail’s uncle Faqeer Husain would give the hand of his three-year-old daughter Iqra in marriage to Shan, 15, son of Manzoor.

Faqeer agreed to the decision and asked them to call ‘Nikah Khwan’ (registrar). Manzoor Qureshi, in the presence of the jury and two witnesses Ghulam Mustafa and Mustafa Mochi, solemnised nikah.

Iqra’s grandfather protested against the decision and approached the Rohallanwali police who registered a case against 20 people and later arrested 12 of them on Saturday.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2014