GILGIT: The chief justice of Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Court has summoned the Gilgit SSP and Danyore SHO on Wed­nesday (today) in a case relating to alleged abduction of an underage girl and her forced marriage.

A legal team of the GB High Court Bar representing the father of 13-year-old Falak Noor filed a petition in the GB Chief Court on Tuesday, citing five accused and five police officials as respondents in the case.

The petition requested Chief Justice Ali Baig to direct the police to immediately recover Falak Noor and produce her before the court. It also asked for declaring the nikha null and determining her age through a medical board.

According to the petition, the girl was abducted from Gilgit on January 20 this year and later taken to Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where she was forced in a marriage with Fareed Alam.

Talking to Dawn, Advocate Ehsan Ali, a member of the legal team, alleged that the police didn’t move to recover the girl despite having knowledge of the accused and their locations.

He said a statement of the girl under Section 164 of CrPC was recorded before a magistrate in Mansehra in the presence of abductors, and a private lady doctor declared the girl adult without fulfilling the requirements to determine her age.

Later, he added, the accused obtained pre-arrest bail from Peshawar High Court’s Abbottabad bench till April 6.

Right activists, politicians and civil society organisations have been protesting against the incident in Islamabad and GB and demandeing the culprits’ arrest. The HRCP also demanded recovery of the girl and her production before the court.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2024