PESHAWAR, Oct 13: A 14-year-old girl who left her home in protest against her forced engagement was handed over to her family by a local court on Thursday.

A judicial magistrate, Tufail Ahmad, accepted the plea of the girl’s uncle after he furnished an undertaking that she would not be harmed.

Earlier, the girl had declined to live with her parents saying that she would be killed by her family members.

The magistrate told the girl’s uncle, Abdur Rehman, that he would be held responsible if the girl was harmed in any way.

On Oct 7, Mariam left her residence situated in Dara Adamkhel, a tribal town in the south of Peshawar, and took a bus ride to Peshawar.

When some passers-by spotted Mariam they took her to Gulbahar police station. The girl told police that her parents had got her engaged to one of her cousins. Mariam told her parents she wasn’t happy with the match, but they still went ahead with it. So she left her home with just ten rupees to her name.

The court had earlier sent her to the provincial government-run crisis centre for women. When her parents came to know about her presence there they filed an application before the court requesting that she should be handed over to them. However, the girl refused to accompany them.