GILGIT, April 18: Hundreds of protesters from the Danyore and Jutial localities of Gilgit district on Saturday demanded that the government recover an eleven-year-old girl, Harika Abbas, who was kidnapped five days ago and forced into marriage.

Earlier the parents of the kidnapped girl and the protesters called on the Force Commander of the Northern Areas (FCNA) Maj Gen Tahir Mehmood, and apprised him of the delaying tactics used by police and local judiciary in tracing the kidnapped girl.

The FCNA, they said, had given the administration two-days to recover the girl, a Class VI student, who was kidnapped on April 10 in Danyore, and the accused had defied the court orders to appear on April 15.

The angry protesters marched towards Gilgit City but they were stopped by police at Khomer Chowk. The Northern Areas Advisor for education, finance and revenue Hafiz Hafizur Rahman, while addressing the protesters said: "It is shameful that the custodians of the law (police and judiciary) are protecting the accused on one pretext or the other and even more shameful is that justice has become a saleable commodity as the poor are unable to buy it," Mr Rahman criticized.

The advisor assured the protesters that they were giving a two-day deadline to the local administration for tracing the girl, failing which they would begin mass protests and agitation and he would himself lead them.