MUZAFFARABAD, Oct 31: In what appears to be first ever known case of vani in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, an 11-year-old girl was forcibly wedded to a 28-year-old boy to settle a dispute sparked by the earlier court marriage of two members from the rival families, victim’s mother said here on Sunday.

Ms Ashraf Jan, whose Sangar Pathara village is located in the constituency of AJK Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, called upon the premier to provide justice and protection to them as they were receiving death threats from the accused.

“My innocent daughter should be protected from the oppressors or else they will kill us,” she said at the local press club. According to Ms Jan’s account, her husband Abdul Khaliq had sought the match of Ansar Bibi, daughter of one Abdul of Rahimkot village, for their son Talib in April this year but the proposal was refused.

Later, after the death of Abdul his daughter fled from home out of alleged repression by her paternal uncle Maulvi Miskeen. She was, however, recovered by the same evening following which Miskeen contracted her marriage with a villager, namely Raheem.

However, when Raheem demanded consummation of marriage, Miskeen declined and had to pay Rs30,000 in fine to him under the orders of a local jirga. Raheem then divorced Ansar Bibi.

In the third week of October, Ansar Bibi eloped with Talib and both solemnised marriage in the court of district and sessions judge Bagh and went into hiding.

When Ansar Bibi’s uncle came to know about the marriage, he brought around half a dozen people from his village as well as some police officials to Sangar Pathara on October 20 and demanded from Talib’s parents Rs600,000 in fine or, in default of payment, match of Talib’s 11-year old sister, Kiran, for Ansar Bibi’s brother Sarfraz.As Talib’s family did not possess money, it agreed for the marriage of Kiran with Sarfraz but Miskeen pressured them to contract the nikah there and then. A policeman Riasat Abbasi, apparently present in the jirga on behalf of Talib’s family, also pressured for the instant nikah which was solemnised by Maulvi Zafarullah.

Kiran was accompanied by her mother to Rahimkot village where she kept on crying profusely the whole night. The mother and daughter returned to Sangar Pathara the following morning.

Since then, Kiran, a 6th grade student in Girls’ Higher Secondary School Sangar Pathara, has not returned to Rahimkot. When a reporter of a private TV channel managed to contact Kiran while she was returning from school, she maintained that she had no idea what was going on in the jirga.

“They were showing me handcuffs and forcibly made me to write my name in a (nikah) form,” she told the channel. “I have been subjected to villainy. I kept on crying but there was no one to come to my rescue. I don’t want to go back,” she added.

After Ms Jan spoke to media persons, she was lodged by the officials in the Social Welfare Complex Muzaffarabad whereas Kiran was said to be lodged with the family of SDM Dhirkot.

However, no one has been arrested till the filing of this report, not even the constable Riasat Abbasi for facilitating the child marriage.

This correspondent made several attempts to ascertain the version of the other party after obtaining their contact numbers. But, almost all of them had switched off their phones.