Peshawar, July 31 (ANI): A Pakistani judge has separated a runaway Afghan couple who eloped and married for love, after a disabled man appeared in court claiming to be the woman's first husband.

Judge Dost Muhammad Khan had last week ordered that the couple be protected and given accommodation in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar after he appeared to accept that Mariyam and Hewad were legitimately married, reports The Dawn.

Mariyam and Hewad, both 22, said they ran away from Kabul to Pakistan last month, and married in Abbottabad in northwest Pakistan.

Mariyam said her parents wanted her to marry her dead sister's husband and that if she is sent back to Afghanistan she would probably be murdered for marrying someone of her own choice.

On Tuesday, her mother and brother appeared in court with the 48-year-old man in a wheel chair claiming he was her real husband.

Her mother Raazia, 65, said Mariyam had consented to the match and married him six and a half years ago. Two years later, the man had a stroke, which left him partially paralysed, she added.

The court should hand over the girl to us, we will not kill her, Raazia said.

Judge Khan referred the matter to a family court, and sent Mariyam to a womens' shelter, and Hewad for questioning.

Hewad had earlier said he faced serious threats from Mariyam's family.

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

Despite progress in recent years and improved legal protection, women suffer chronic rights abuses in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, the paper said. (ANI)