The Allahabad high court has directed the police to provide security to a Muslim woman from Meerut and a man she eloped with.

Reshma, the wife of Arif and daughter of Sherdin, eloped with her lover Jabir last month.

The couple, now living in Delhi, approached the high court to seek police protection.

This was granted by the court, which fixed the hearing of the case for March 4, the police said.

The police have made 10 members of Reshma's family, including her father and uncles, execute bonds saying they will not harm her or her second husband.

Reshma, who hails from Mundali village in Meerut, was married last year to Arif, a resident of Khiwai village in the same district.

Arif has filed an FIR with police, accusing Jabir of kidnapping Reshma.

Reshma's parents and Arif have contended that she cannot remarry without divorcing her first husband as this is against the Shariat or Islamic laws.

Arif is planning to approach the Darul Uloom Deoband seminary to get a fatwa and a decree from the community panchayat against Reshma's second marriage.

Mundali village hit the headlines a few years ago when a soldier who was presumed dead in the Kargil conflict, came back to find his wife Gudiya married to another man.

Gudiya was reunited with the soldier, but died later.