MANSEHRA, April 9: Police arrested 13 persons for giving a four-year-old girl in vani to settle a dispute between two families in Battagram on Saturday.

Police said that they also recovered the vani girl and arrested the bridegroom, his father, father of bride, a cleric and eight members of the jirga.

The jirga allegedly declared the girl vani and tied her note with a boy of the opponent family to settle a feud. “We have booked 13 people, including fathers of both bride and bridegroom, a cleric who solemnised the marriage and eight jirga members” Sanawar Shah, the SHO of Battagram police station, told reporters.

He said that enmity started between the two parties when a man filmed a married woman of the opponent family with his cellular phone and sent the footage to other people.

He said that the brother of the woman went to the house of the man when he came to know about the issue but he fled the scene. “The brother of the woman assaulted the sister-in-law of the accused when he didn’t find him in his home,” Mr Shah said.

He said that after the incident tension gripped Nilee Shang Kachkoot area and the elders held a jirga to settle the dispute. The SHO said that the jirga imposed a fine of Rs300,000 on the man, who had made video, and asked him to handed over his daughter to the rival party as vani.