Court intervenes: Police registers FIR against 59 people for holding jirga

Petitioner alleges he was asked to give his sisters, aged 15 and five, in marriage.

SUKKUR:

The Jacobabad police registered FIRs against 59 people on Friday evening on the charges of holding a jirga which ordered exchanging minor girls to resolve a karo-kari dispute between groups of the Banglani tribe 15 days ago.

The cases were registered at the Garhi Hassan Sarki Police Station on the orders of the Jacobabad district and sessions. Abdul Ghafoor Banglani, son of Sanaullah Banglani, filed a petition with the court, stating that on January 11, he along with his brothers, Abdul Shakoor and Farooq Ahmed, went to Gul Sher Kandrani village, where a jirga was held under Sardar Jahangir Banglani.

According to the petitioner, the jirga declared his father Sanaullah Banglani as karo and imposed a fine of Rs1.2 million. Not only that, the jirga also ordered to give my two sisters, one aged 15 and the other five, in marriage to the sons of Abdul Samad Banglani, the petitioner alleged, adding that on refusal, Jahangir Banglani started threatening his family and ordered them to leave the village.



After hearing the petition, the court ordered the police to register an FIR against the people responsible for holding the jirga. Following court’s order, the Garhi Hassan Sarki police registered FIR No. 1/2014 under section 310-A against 59 people, including Sardar Jahangir Banglani, Abdul Samad Banglani, Hazar Khan, Daim Khan, Ali Murad, Shah Murad, Noor Nabi, Ali Hassan and Barkat Ali. No arrests were made till the filing of this report.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th, 2014.