MANSEHRA, June 14: The police arrested five people and continued search for two others who held a jirga the other day and declared a minor girl as vani to settle an honor-related dispute between two families in Kotli Pain area, officials said on Thursday.

The District Police Officer, Mansehra, Ijaz Ahmad Khan, acting on a tip-off about the jirga’s decision, ordered Baffa police to lodge FIR against those responsible for holding the jirga and declaring a minor girl as vani.

A cousin of the victim girl, FN, namely Mohammad Riasat, had married a girl of the rival family on her own free will. After the couple returned to the village, the two families convened a jirga to settle the issue.

The jirga, which was attended by members of both families, declared FN as vani and handed her over in marriage to Mohammad Fiaz, 10, a brother of the girl, who married Riasat.

Sardar Ajmal, SHO Baffa police station, told reporters that FIR was lodged against seven people under section 310 PPC. He said that five accused, including the girl’s father Abdul Qayyum, Mohammad Ali, Abdul Rehman, Mohammad Afzal and Mohammad Daud had been arrested while Mian Gul and Malik Amman, father of Fiaz, were still at large.

SHO Mr Ajmal said that the FIR lodged against Mohammad Riasat was dropped after he produced marriage documents to the police.

APPEAL TO IGP: A physically-challenged person has appealed to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa IGP Akbar Hoti to provide him security as his relatives wanted to deprive him of his land in Badra area of Mansehra.

Mian Tajamal Hussain, whose backbone was fractured after falling from an electric pole some 15 years ago, told reporters at King Abdullah Teaching Hospital on Thursday his relatives forcibly cut his trees from his ancestral land and now werethreatening him with dire consequences if he took the issue to the police or the court.—Correspondent