LANDI KOTAL, March 8: In an unusual development, the Lashkar-i-Islam arranged marriage of a teenaged boy and a girl, who were in love and had eloped, in Bara here on Saturday.

The marriage was arranged on a decision of the Shura of the organisation led by Mangal Bagh. Laskhar activists had caught college student Amir Mohammad, 18, and the teenaged girl after they had eloped to avoid the wrath of their families, local people said.

The Lashkar men had handed over the girl to her family after an assurance from them that she would not be harmed and had taken the boy to the group’s headquarters at Pakka Tharra.

The Shura had asked the families of the girl and the boy to leave the issue to them.

Local people said the Shura consulted two Fatwas issued by the Daarul Uloom Haqania in Akora Khattak and the Sheikh Sirajuddin Madresseh in Peshawar on the matter.

It concluded that since Sharia allowed people to marry of their own choice, killing them for their elopement would be un-Islamic, the people said.

After the Shura decision, the Lashkar arranged for the Nikah of the two at Pakka Tarrah.

The Lashkar activists warned the families of the boy and the girl not to mistreat or harm them.