One year on, Ambreen’s family awaits justice

Rights activists, lawyers claim police are intentionally slowing down investigations, delaying trial

ABBOTTABAD: A year after a 15-year-old-girl was burnt alive by unidentified suspects, her family are still awaiting justice.

A resident of Makol Paeyen village near Donga Gali, Ambreen’s charred remains had been found in a burnt van close to her house on April 30, 2016.

Sources said over eight vehicles had been parked by the roadside in the village when two of them were set on fire.



“Locals tried to put out the blaze but it was so intense that the vehicles were burnt to a crisp,” said Galiyat DSP Jamilur Rehman had said at the time.

He added when the flames were finally put out, villagers discovered the charred remains of a teenaged girl in the backseat of one of the burnt vans.

Noting that the body had been burnt beyond recognition, police determined that the girl was inside the vehicle when it was set on fire - a heinous crime had been committed.

The police subsequently made announcements in the village, asking locals to identify the remains.

A few of hours later, a boy came forward and claimed that the girl was his sister, 15-year-old Ambreen Bibi, also called Halima from the village.

As news of the incident spread and the media put a spotlight on it, the police announced that they had managed to arrest around 15 suspects believed to be involved in the murder.

But a year on, investigations into the matter are still going on and the police have yet to definitively say they have caught the killers.

Police complicit?

For some human rights activists and lawyers, the delays in tracking the real culprits seem to be an indication that the police was involved in protecting them.



Human rights activist Ejaz Jadoon Madani claimed that the police were intentionally delaying the trial of the suspects and slowing down the investigation process. She pointed towards how police had failed to file the charge-sheet against the suspects within the stipulated time period.

While talking to APP, Advocate Shabnam Nawaz alleged that the suspects are from influential backgrounds, which is why police were delaying the trial.

Soon after the incident, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar had visited the area and had promised to plead Ambreen’s case in court himself. He had also vowed to establish a school in the area named after the victim.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 2^nd, 2017.