DI Khan incident: K-P police chief told to file response today

Advocate general assures victim’s family of cooperation

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General for Police was given 24 hours to submit his response in the case of a teenager who was forcibly stripped naked and then paraded in a Dera Ismail Khan village last month.

A two-member-bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) comprising Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Syed Afsar Shah Peshawar High Court on Tuesday was hearing a petition filed by the teenager’s mother who had urged the court to provide her family with speedy justice, register a case against a witness who recorded the incident on his cellphone and to direct the government to provide them with security since they were still receiving threats.

Qazi Anwar, the petitioners’ lawyer, urged the court to direct all responsible K-P police officials, including the SHO of Chodwan police station, and the K-P inspector general to present details of their investigations into the case so far.

The lawyer also urged the court to direct the political parties and political leaders not to use the incident for political point scoring.

Meanwhile, K-P Advocate General Abdul Latif Yousafzai, who was attending the hearing, told the court that the government would cooperate with the family.

“I assure, not only the court but the party (petitioner), that complete justice will be done and we will cooperate with the victim’s family in any manner they ask.”

On 27 October, a 16-year-old girl was allegedly stripped naked and then paraded in a village near the remote town of Chodwan, around 80 kilometres west of DI Khan. Police said that they are still conducting investigations and have so far apprehended eight out of the nine suspects nominated in the FIR.

The court adjourned the case till Wednesday (today) and directed all the respondents to submit their responses.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 22^nd, 2017.