Video of Swat woman being whipped was fake, SC told

The court disposes of the suo motu case registered in April 2009.

ISLAMABAD: After the passage of seven years, the federal government has told the Supreme Court that the incident of whipping of a woman in Swat during Taliban’s rule in 2009 had never taken place and that the video footage was fake.

Former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had taken suo motu notice of a March 2009 video footage of a 17-year-old girl being flogged in public by the Taliban. The woman’s flogging had been filmed and had attracted nationwide and international outrage after it was put online.



An eight-member bench of the Supreme Court on April 6, 2009 directed the interior secretary, and the Khyber Pakhtunkwa (K-P) chief secretary and inspector general (IG) of police to prepare a detailed report on the case.

Former SC Registrar Dr Faqir Hussain had brought the incident to the notice of the former CJP. In his note to the CJP, he had stated that in the video the victim was crying and screaming continuously while being lashed for leaving home without a ‘Mehram’.



The exact place, where the incident had taken place, could not be identified. However, it appeared to be filmed somewhere in Mingora or a village in Swat, he added. The registrar said it was a very cruel act that had violated fundamental rights as well as Islamic norms besides tarnishing the country’s name.

In its one-page report submitted before the SC’s the three-judge bench – headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar – the Interior Ministry said after emergence of the footage, the local police registered a case on April 3, 2009 at a police station in Kabal. The one-page report is available with The Express Tribune.



Later on, a special team was constituted to probe into the matter. The report said there were rumours that the punishment of lashes was awarded to a Chand Bibi. The special team summoned Chand Bibi and her husband to police station and their statements were recorded under section 164 Cr. PC.

However, the two refused that such incident ever took place. Statements of elders were also recorded and they also expressed their ignorance, the report said.

“In view of the circumstance, the incident of whipping has not taken place in the jurisdiction of Swat district and it was a bogus video as per a publication ‘Daily Pakistan’ newspaper Peshawar dated 29-3-2010 and the subject case was filed as untraced by ATC [Anti-Terrorism Court] on 16-9-2010,” it said.

After going through the report, the three-judge bench observed that prima facie the video, which had been shown on social media, was bogus. The bench, later, disposed of the suo motu case.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2016.