Pakistani infants saved from wedlock to landlord's son

ISLAMABAD, July 18 (Reuters) Police in the southern Pakistan province of Sindh have arrested two landowners for forcing a peasant to give two infant daughters in marriage as repayment for a loan, a police official said.

Police arrested Ali Nawaz Rind and Mohammad Ramazan Rind this week after they held a council of village elders, or jirga, that ordered one-year old Moora and two-year old Marvi, the daughters of Bhongar Khoso, be given in marriage to the infant sons of Nawaz.

''We have made pre-emptive arrests after we learnt that this jirga was held in Sanghar,'' senior police official Ajmal Magsi told Reuters.

Police said Khoso had taken a loan of 25,000 rupees from Nawaz Rind.

When he could not repay it, a village council was convened to decide the matter, and invoked the custom of sang-chati, whereby girls are used as bartering chips to settle disputes. The practice has been made illegal, but it is still prevalent in rural areas where feudal and tribal ways hold sway.

Last week, Pakistani police filed a case against 13 people, including an opposition member of parliament, for holding a village council that ordered five minor girls to be given in marriage as compensation for a double murder case.

The girls, aged six to 13, were rescued by authorities.

REUTERS SHB RS1853