Vigilante justice: With blackened face, alleged rapist paraded on donkey

Khanpur Circle DSP added the woman was also made to beat Shahid Aslam, the alleged rapist

HARIPUR:

After orders from a jirga, a man had his head shaved and was paraded on a donkey for allegedly attempting to rape a married woman in a remote village of Khanpur. He was also made to swallow urine for his alleged crime, a police official said on Monday.

“Two of the jirga members have been arrested while nine are still at large,” the official added. He said action was taken after the man filed an application with Khanpur police station, seeking legal action against the jirga members, including the husband of the woman. Khanpur Circle DSP Ayaz Khan confirmed the incident, saying it was a violation of the law as such decisions could not be taken by locals in the presence of a criminal justice system.

Ayaz added the woman was also made to beat Shahid Aslam, the alleged rapist. The 22-year-old, a resident of Shah Kabul, which borders Islamabad capital city, was quoted by Khanpur police as saying he was home on December 17. Around 3pm, some people called him outside and asked him to attend a jirga that was under way, Aslam added. “When I reached there, the jirga members asked me to plead guilty to charges of attempting to rape a woman from my locality,” he told the police.

Aslam said all jirga members were from the woman’s side and refused to investigate the matter. “Without listening to my side of the story, the jirga handed down the punishment and it was executed without further delay,” he recalled.

“The jirga called a barber who shaved my head, moustache and eyebrows in the presence of jirga members and dozens of villagers. They then blackened my face, made me wear a garland of shoes and I was made to roam around the village streets on a donkey,” the complainant told the Khanpur police.

Aslam added the jirga was not satisfied with the humiliation and took matters a step further. The jirga asked Kamla Bibi*, the alleged victim, to urinate in a bowl and send it to the venue. “The jirga members then threw the woman’s urine on my face and head, which also went into my mouth,” he told the police.

According to the investigation officer, Aslam denied trying to rape Kamla Bibi and said the punishment was the result of his differences with some of the jirga members. The police registered a criminal case on December 24 against 11 members of the jirga, including the woman’s husband, under sections 342, 355, 380, 452 and 506 of the PPC. Two jirga members Muhammad Akhtar and Feroz Din have been arrested, and the other nine remained at large till the filing of
this report.

Local activists such as Nehmat Gul of the Human Development Organisation, Qamar Hayat of SAHARA foundation, Ahsan Khan of Rural Development Project, and Irum Fatima of Pakistani Hoslamand Khwateen Network condemned the parallel jirga justice system, saying it was used to settle scores against rivals. They demanded a judicial enquiry into the matter and legal action against jirga members who took the law into their own hands instead of referring it to the police or a court. The activists said exposing a man to such public humiliation was against the spirit of the Constitution of Pakistan.

*Name changed to protect identity

Published in The Express Tribune, December 29^th, 2015.