MANSEHRA: Police have booked 18 members of a jirga for declaring a minor girl Vani and solemnising her nikkah with a man to settle a feud between two families in Batian area of Oghi.

`We have arrested five members of the jirga including a cleric. Raids are being conducted to arrest the remaining 13 jirga members, who first declared a six-yearold girl Vani and then solemnised her nikkah with a man of the rival party secretly, DSP Zulfiqar Jadoon told journalists on Sunday.

He said that Hifza, 6, was married off to Kamran at a jirga held in Batian area of Shungli Bandi union council in Oghi tehisl of Mansehra district. He said that Maulvi Abdul Aziz solmanised the nikkah at the jirga.

`We raided the jirga and after finding facts booked 18 people including a local cleric and arrested five of them, said Mr Jadoon. Giving details of the incident, the DSP said that a woman engaged to Shahnawaz eloped with Mohammad Saeed before the wedding ceremony on May 25 of this year. It caused enmity between the families of the woman and M. Saeed.

`A jirga was held to settle this dispute a couple of days ago. The jirga decided to hand over Hifza, the paternal cousin of M. Saeed, to the family of the woman as Vani and solemnise her nikkah with Kamran, the brother of Shahnawaz,` said Mr Jadoon.

He said that five members of jirga including Maulvi Abdul Aziz, Amber Khan, councillor Haider Khan, Anzar Khan and Khalawat Khan were arrested.

Mr Jadoon said that FIR was also registered against Shahnawaz and his brother Kamran. `Police can never allow anyone to use a woman or a girl as commodity (Vani) to settle personal enmities or feuds,` he added.

WORKERS: The mineworkers have threatened to commit self-immolation publicly if tehsil government of Oghi fails to withdraw transportation tax.

They said that hundreds of labourers were rendered jobless after imposition of the tax. `The owners of mines have stopped excavation since June 1 to protest imposition of Rs2,000 tax on per truck by tehsil government. If the tax is not withdrawn, we would commit self-immolation,` Imtiaz Shah, a labourer, told journalists in Oghi on Sunday.-Correspondent