Busted: Jacobabad police arrest two people in jirga case

Accused were involved in holding jirga which ordered barter of two minor girls

SUKKUR: Police arrested two people accused of involvement in holding a jirga which had ordered to barter two minor girls to settle a karo-kari dispute, disclosed Jacobabad SSP Sajjad Khokhar while addressing a press conference at his office on Saturday.

Earlier, police arrested three others and two more people were taken into custody Sunday night who were produced in court and were granted a five-day police remand, said Khokhar, adding that raids are being conducted to arrest three more accused booked at the Karim Bux police station.

Both the girls in question and their father have been taken into protective custody, said Khokhar.

It may be mentioned that the Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar had taken notice of the jirga held near Thull in which apart from imposing a fine of Rs1.3 million, the jirga had ordered the man to barter his two minor daughters to settle a karo-kari dispute. Two years ago, a jirga under the presidency of Abdul Ghaffar Khoso was held to resolve a karo-kari dispute between two groups of the Khoso tribe.

Mohammad Ali Khoso labelled Rafiq Khoso as karo with his wife after which a jirga was held under the presidency of Abdul Ghaffar. After hearing both the sides at length, the jirga declared Rafiq as karo and imposed a fine of Rs1.3 million on him and ordered the barter of his two minor daughters to settle the dispute. Rafiq had refused to abide by the verdict of the jirga due to which the president of the jirga threatened him of dire consequences.

Rafiq held a protest a few days ago in front of the Jacobabad Press Club and CJP Nisar, taking notice of the jirga, had ordered the Larkana DIG to investigate and take action. Thus, police have so far arrested five accused including, Abdul Ghaffar, Raza Mohammad Khoso, Ahmed Khoso and others.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th, 2017.