SC orders sessions judge to visit Kohistan to verify 'honour' killings

Advocate General K-P submits investigation report stating that the girls are alive

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court ordered a sessions judge on Thursday to visit Kohistan to verify the alleged killing of five girls on the instructions of a jirga [tribal court].

Advocate General Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Latif Yousafzai submitted an investigation report, which said the girls were alive.

The case made headlines four years ago when a shaky video of the girls singing as two men danced at a wedding ceremony in Kohistan district emerged, along with reports that they were subsequently killed under the instructions of a jirga.



On October 19, the apex court set a two-week deadline for the completion of an inquiry into the alleged killing. The deadline was given to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government and Kohistan’s district police officer.

On June 4, 2012, the then CJP Iftikhar Chaudhry took suo motu notice of the alleged killing. However, the former CJP disposed off the case on June 20, 2012 after a delegation visited the Kohistan village and found no evidence of the murder.



It comprised of Civil Judge Munira Abbasi, MNA Bushra Gohar and activists Dr Fauzia Saeed and Dr Farzana Bari.

The case was reopened in August this year when Afzal Kohistani – on whose application the former chief justice took suo motu notice – filed a fresh plea informing the court he had new evidence that the girls as well as three of his brothers were in fact murdered.