MANSEHRA: The Batagram police have arrested around a dozen members of a jirga, including a cleric, over marriage of two sisters in line with vani tradition.

The arrests were made during a raid on a house in the remote hilly area of Hill.

Father of vani girls, Mohammad Malang, had complained against the arrested men, including Qari Dilbar Khan, Ali Asar, Azeem Jan, Niazullah, Shafeeullah, Mohammad Zaman, Lal Khan, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Shahzad, Mohammad Shahid and Sahib Shah.

Deputy inspector general of police Akhtar Hayat Gandapur told reporters here that the arrested men first declared two sisters vani and then got them married to men of rival family to settle a dispute caused by the alleged elopement of a married woman earlier this year.

Police say minor sisters were married to settle a dispute

In the complaint, Mohammad Malang claimed a daughter-in-law of Lal Khan had eloped and held his son, Sharab Khan, responsible for the woman’s act.

He said Lal Khan and his family members, including Mohammad Ahsan and Khaista Khan, had threatened to kill his entire family forcing him to sit on a jirga with his opponents to settle the dispute.

The complainant said the jirga led by prayer leader Qari Dilbar Khan issued a decree against him, imposed fine of Rs800,000 on him and declared his two daughters, one aged eight and the other seven, vani and solemnised their marriage with Ahsanul Haq and Attiqullah respectively.

The woman, who had allegedly fled home, told police that her husband and his family used to torture her without reason.

TWO KILLED: The patron-in-chief of a traders’ body and his brother were gunned down in an ‘honour-related’ incident here in College Doraha area on Tuesday night.

Amirzeb alleged armed men, including Shahnawaz, Tahir Shah, Iftikhar Shah, Hanif Khan, Nizam Shah, Majid Hussain Shah, Murtaza Shah and Asmat Shah, stormed his poultry shop and killed his father, Chenzeb, and uncle, Mohammad Khalid, and fled.

He said the alleged killers were enraged by the marriage of the daughter of one of them with Khalid’s son without the family’s consent.

The police handed over the bodies to the family after postmortem for burial.

They registered an FIR and raided various places to arrest the suspects but not to avail.

ARMY PRAISED: The students, educationists and family members of the army men, who rendered lives fighting terrorism, praised the army for protecting the motherland during a special function at Pakistan Scout Cadet College, Batrassi.

The event was organised to honour the college’s former student, Captain Mohammad Mohammad Usman, who had died in the Nov 26, 2011 Nato attack on Salala checkpoint on Pak-Afghan border.

Captain Usman’s wife, Tuba, said she was proud of her husband as he had laid down his life defending the motherland.

“Usman left a 10-day daughter orphan but protected others from being orphaned,” she said.

Captain Usman’s daughter, Rameen, 3, was the chief gust at the function.

College principal Abdul Hafeez said the army was confronting enemies bravely and with dedication to protect the motherland.

“We are proud of our army officers and soldiers like of Captain Usman, who embraced shahadat defending the country,” he said.

Colleagues and teachers shared with participants the time they’d spent with Captain Usman.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2014