MANSEHRA: The police have arrested a couple, who had eloped and got married in the Paras area of the district last month.

`We arrested the couple and produced them before a local magistrate, who ordered the girl to be sent to Darul Aman due to threats to her life,` district police officer Shafiullah Khan Gandapur told reporters here the other day.

The police arrested the couple from a local bazaar while shopping and brought them to Paras police station under tight security.

They were then presented before the civil judge/local magistrate, who, after hearing their statements, sent the woman to Darul Aman in Abbottabad and remanded the man to judicial custody.

The girl`s father had lodged an FIR at the Paras police station on March 30, alleging that Toufeeg Yusuf, along with several family members, including women, had lured and kidnapped his daughter at night when his family wasasleep.

According to the FIR, the woman`s family had solemnised her Nikah with another man in May 2023.

The police registered the case under sections 365-B and 34 of Pakistan Penal Code.

DPO Gandapur said the girl would be produced before a local court in Balakot to record her statement under section 164 of CrPC. `Though the local magistrate has sent her to Darul Aman due to security concerns, the law will tal(e its due course after she records her statement before the judicial magistrate,` he said.

In a similar case, a woman and her 16-month-old daughter were allegedly killed for honour by her family in Jaba area of Mansehra last week.

MORE PROVINCES SOUGHT: Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Mohammad Yusuf on Sunday said the creation of more federating units on administrative basis was essential to effectively address the country`s financialand socialissues.

`Good governance depends on the creation of more federating units. The people of Hazara division have shed their blood for provincial status,` he told reporters here.

Mr Yusuf, who also chairs Tehreek-i-Sooba Hazara, said the people of Hazara have been strug-gling for a separate province for decades.

`Our people laid down their lives for the cause of Hazara province more than a decade ago and are still continuing their peaceful struggle in the right direction,` he said.

REPEAL OF PECA SOUGHT: Pakistani celebrity Reham Khan has asked the government to repeal the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca), 2016, safeguarding the freedom of speech.

`I was one of the strongest critics of Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz government for introducing Peca in 2016, and now the same party has made it even more oppressive, further curbing freedom of expression and drawing widespread criticism,` she said while addressing a presser here on Sunday.

Accompanied by her husband, Mirza Bilal Baig, she said those who played a key role in enacting Peca and suffered the consequences in the past would face similar outcomes in the future for making the law even more stringent.

Ms Khan, the former wife of expremier Imran Khan, said the country could only progress toward true democracy when politicians empowered ordinary women, rather than favouring their family members daughters and sisters for political roles.