Honour killing: Jirga ordered girl’s murder for helping friend elope, says police

Victim was drugged, strangled and torched for facilitating love affair

ABBOTTABAD:

Police have nabbed 14 members of a Jirga that ordered the death of a teenage girl because she helped a schoolgirl elope with her boyfriend.

The Jirga members were traced through mobile phone calls to suspects picked up earlier, District Police Officer Khurram Rasheed told a news conference. After their arrest, he added, the accused confessed to ordering the murder of 16-year-old Ambreen Riasat for arranging secret meetings between her schoolmate S* and the man she eventually eloped with.

The Jirga members met on April 28 at the house of Naseer Ahmed, the owner of a high-roof van, which the couple used to elope.

The couple has married of their free will, DSP Nazia Jadoon told The Express Tribune.

A day later, the charred body of Ambreen was found tied to the rear seat of a gutted vehicle in a village near Islamabad.

Police had earlier rounded up several suspects including the girl’s mother and brother in connection with  the murder. The victim's mother, Shamim Bibi, was arrested  for not sharing the jirga’s decision with the police despite being aware of it.

The victim’s body was found in the same pick-up van that was used by the couple to escape from Makol Payen village on April 23.

DPO Khurram said the tribal elders condemned the role of Ambreen as well as Naseer and ordered that the girl should be set on fire for dishonouring the entire village while the vehicle of Naseer should also be set ablaze.

After the verdict, the girl was taken to an abandoned house, drugged and then strangled to death.

To confuse the investigators, the DPO said, a similar van parked next to the one with the body was gutted in the fire and three other vehicles were partially damaged.

Besides Shamim and Naseer, those arrested are village council nazim Pervez, Safdar, Siraj, Shabbir, Javed, Gul Zareen, Afzal, Munir, Umar Zeb, Saeed, Gul Zaman Sattar and Gul Zaman Akbar. Two more suspects named Pervez and Wajid are on the run.

The accused have been booked under anti-terrorism laws. The Abbottabad anti-terrorism court has given 14 days to the police to interrogate the suspects on remand.

Jirgas are often summoned in Pakistan to settle communal disputes out of the court, but their edicts have no legal standing under Pakistani laws.

Last year alone, more than 500 men and women were killed in honour crimes, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

*Name of the fleeing couple has been withheld to protect privacy


Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2016.