MANSEHRA, April 15 A local jirga in the tribal area of Kala Dhaka has issued a decree for execution of a boy and a girl who had left their homes to get married.

“If the political administration did not promptly intervene, two innocent people will fall prey to the old jirga custom and tradition as it is the common practice in the area,” said Raza Khan, district coordinator of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

He told Dawn on Wednesday that he had taken up the issue with political agent Israr Khan for protecting the boy and girl because the jirga members could put them to death anytime.

He said Alia Bibi and Azeemul Haq had been arrested on Feb 26 by the Alpuri police in the neighbouring Shangla district after they had left their homes. A case was registered against them under section 55/109 of Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.PC) and they were produced before the judicial magistrate, who ordered their release on furnishing two sureties of Rs50,000 each.

On March 2 when some tribesmen got her bail orders from the local court, the girl refused to go with them without Azeemul Haq, Mr Raza added.

Later, after their release, they were kidnapped and taken to Kala Dhaka, where a jirga last week declared that they had breached honour of the tribe and should be killed.

Mr Raza said that as per information collected from the area, Alia Bibi had been handed over to her parents and Azeemul Haq to Nusrullah Khan, a local primary schoolteacher of Shahdag, to kill them, but the order had not be executed so far.

He said the father of the girl, Hazarat Gul, was unwilling to kill her daughter. “I am under immense pressure from my family and jirga members to execute my daughter, but I believe she is innocent,” he quoted Mr Gul as saying

He said he discussed the issue with the political agent on Wednesday, who dispatched Levies force under the command of political naib tehsildar Jamshed Khan to rescue the two and produce them before him.

He said that according to his information Azeemul Haq belonged to a very poor family of potters and they could not resist the jirga pressure.