Frontier police on Tuesday arrested four people, including the father of a minor girl, her grandfather and two members of a jirga for announcing the handover of three-year old Pakistani girl, Iqra Bibi, to an Afghan refugee as ‘Swara’. “The jirga decision is a violation of Supreme Court orders banning the offering of females in Badl-e-Sulh (Swara) to a rival party for resolution of disputes,” Lower Dir District Police Officer (DPO) Mohammad Khurshid told Daily Times. He said police had arrested the girl’s father Pervez Khan, her grandfather Gul Khan and jirga members, Ghulam Mohammad and Mohammad Gul. A few days ago, elders in the Chakdara area of Dir district ordered the handover of Iqra Bibi as Swara for Friday (August 31). Locals said Iqra’s father Pervez Khan had been tortured into bowing to the jirga’s decision.
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He said the Afghan refugees had initially forced him to pay Rs 30,000 to avoid disgrace, and alleged that they had later snatched a further Rs 32,000 from him. Then, he added, the Afghan refugees held a jirga and forced him at gunpoint to give Fazle Subhan his three-year old daughter as Swara. “I was left with no option but to accept the decision,” Pervez said.