DI Khan incident: IG assures complete security for victim’s family

PHC directs human rights directorate to submit fortnightly reports

PESHAWAR: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s top cop on Wednesday assured the Peshawar High Court that the incident of a teenaged girl being stripped naked and then paraded in a Dera Ismail Khan village will be fully investigated while the victim’s family will be provided security.

The court also directed the human right’s directorate to oversee the investigation and submit progress reports every 14 days.

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Inspector General for Police (IGP) submitted a written response to the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Syed Afsar Shah on Wednesday as the court resumed hearing a petition filed by the 16-year-old girl’s mother who had urged the court to provide her family with speedy justice and security.

In his written response, the K-P police chief said that they have already formed a joint investigation team to probe the matter. Furthermore, local police had registered a case and arrested eight out of nine suspects named it. He added that they are searching the remaining suspect who is still at large.

While addressing the petitioner’s request for security, the IGP said that a five-member security team has been deployed around the victim’s house.

Responding to the petitioner’s request of including the name of a witness who had recorded the incident on his cellphone, the police chief told the court that the video maker has also been included in the investigation.

After the court directed PHC’s human rights directorate to oversee the case’s investigation and submit a report after every 14 days, and the assurances from the police chief and provincial government the petitioner’s lawyer told the PHC that they were satisfied.

“We are satisfied as whatever we have demanded has been addressed by the respondents,” counsel Qazi Muhammad Anwar told the court.

On 27 October, a 16-year-old girl was allegedly stripped naked and paraded in a village near the remote town of Chodwan, some 80 kilometres west of DI Khan. The victim’s mother had subsequently filed a petition in the PHC stating that even after she was paraded in the village, she was receiving threats from the suspects. But despite repeated requests, the police has yet to provide them with security.

She had also urged the court that investigations into the case should be monitored and supervised by senior officials on daily bases while regular reports should be submitted to the court.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 23^rd, 2017.