PHC orders security for Afghan elopers

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday ordered police to protect an Afghan couple who eloped and fear being murdered by the bride's furious relatives.

Chief Justice PHC Justice Dost Mohammad Khan while talking suo moto notice on Saturday of the threats to an Afghan coupe ordered police to present them before the court on 23rd July.

Hewad, 22, and Maryam Marjman fled Kabul last month to marry for love in the leafy town of Abbottabad where police arrested them due to lack of travel documents.

Maryam, 22, was later shifted to Women Protection Center in Abbotabad however police register a case against the boy Haywad under 14-Forgners’ Act and shift him to jail.

The CJ also directed DIG and Commissioner Hazara to provide protection to the couple and not permit the girl to go out of Darul Aman.

Maryam, told AFP her parents had wanted her to wed the ageing husband of her sister, who had recently died, instead. She says that if taken back to Afghanistan she would probably be murdered for marrying a man of her own choice.

"The couple should be provided proper accommodation in Peshawar and foolproof security because of threats to their lives," said the CJ.

The pair, whom Pakistani authorities had previously housed separately, were accompanied in court by an armed police escort, an AFP reporter said.

The judges called another hearing next week to check their orders had been implemented.

The young couple escaped their conservative families' clutches with the help of a Pakistani friend -- taking the dead sister's two-year-old daughter with them -- but say relatives of the bride have since travelled to Pakistan in a bid to force them back.

Hewad, who uses only one name, told AFP: "I have serious threats to my life
from Mariyam's relatives, from her parents and her brothers.

"I am sure they can harm me here and if we are sent back to Afghanistan, they will simply shoot us."

Despite progress in recent years and improved legal protection, women suffer chronic rights abuses in Afghanistan.

Earlier this month a video emerged of the public execution of a woman accused of adultery in Afghanistan, who was shot dead as dozens of men cheered.