BAHAWALNAGAR: A 17-year-old girl and her family have demanded that heads of a panchayat (jury of elders) that declared her vani earlier this year, and others nominated in the case, be arrested immediately. They also called for addition of vani sections to the FIR of the case.

At a press conference held outside their house on Sunday, the aggrieved family narrated that the underage girl had been declared vani by the local panchayat in Chak Nur Muhammad Bhangran allegedly to settle a court-marriage dispute of her brother.

They alleged that 15 armed men kidnapped the girl from her house and she was later paraded naked in the street. She was then taken to the outhouse of an influential landlord and raped by two men for six days.

The girl’s father claimed that a week later the abductors in connivance with local influential people convened a panchayat that declared his daughter vani. The landlord also forced him to accept the decision or pay Rs5 million. They forced the family to sign a reconciliation agreement.

He said the suspects later had forcibly married off her daughter to a cousin of the girl with whom his son had allegedly run away.

The father lamented that six months later on court orders, police had booked nine people on charges of abduction and rape, but no action had been taken against them. “My property has been occupied,” he said. He sought the help of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for justice.

After registration of the FIR, the suspects had approached the additional district and sessions judge for bail, but their application was rejected. They approached the high court’s Bahawalpur bench, but the court upheld the sessions court verdict and directed the police to add Section 310(A) relating to vani to the case.

District Police Officer Attaur Rehman told Dawn that justice would be done and anybody found involved in the case would be arrested. He issued directives for adding the vani section to the case and the arrest of panchayat head.

District police’s spokesman Asif Saeed said that after rejection of the bail pleas, nine suspects, including Alam Ali, Zahoor Ahmad, Hakim Ali, Muhammad Iqbal, Muhammad Khan and Dhulay Khan, are on remand in police custody. He said a special team had been formed to arrest the head and members of the panchayat.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2017