PHC acquits six ‘triple murder’ convicts

Abbottabad bench hears final arguments on a writ petition challenging the Kohistan district and sessions court’s...

KOHISTAN: A division bench of Peshawar High Court on Tuesday acquitted all six convicts who were accused of triple murder in the Kohistan video scandal.

The case made headlines in 2012 when a shaky video of the girls singing as two men danced at a wedding ceremony in Kohistan district emerged alongside reports that they were subsequently killed on the order of a jirga [tribal court].



The then chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry took suo motu notice of the alleged honour killings on June 4, 2012, but disposed of the case on the 20th of the same month after a delegation comprising rights activists Farzana Bari and Fauzia Saeed, Civil Judge Munira Abbasi, and MNA Bushra Gohar visited the village in Kohistan and found no evidence of the murder.

Later, on November 10, 2016, a two-member bench of the SC, headed by Justice Ijaz Afzal Khan, ordered a district and sessions court judge in Kohistan to visit the village and verify whether or not the five girls were alive.

The Abbottabad bench, comprising Justice Afsar Ali Shah and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim, heard the final arguments on Tuesday on a writ petition challenging the Kohistan district and sessions court’s order where the district judge Sardar Muhammad Irshad had on January 30, 2014, handed down the death penalty to one of the six accused while five others were given life imprisonment sentences.

According to an FIR, at least 12 armed persons from Azadkhel tribe barged into a home in village Bando Baidar Tehsil Palas, gunning down three brothers Shah Faisal, 37, Sher Wali, 35, and Rafiudin, 32.

The police had arrested Javed, Noorul Haq, Mosam Khan, Sabeer Khan, Jehngir Khan, Mukhtasar Khan, Awal Khan, Bin Tazeer,Taus Khan, Molvi Yadool Khan, Shamsud Din and Munshi Khan on the intervention of a tribal jirga.



They were tried for triple murder and upon completion of arguments and evidences the court had awarded capital punishment to Mukhtasar Khan with Rs200,000 fine. While Awal Khan, Bin Tazeer, Taus Khan, Yadool Khan and Shamsuddin were given life terms with Rs200,000 fine each.

The convicted party had moved the Peshawar High Court. A division bench on Tuesday heard the final arguments from both sides and acquitted all the convicts.