Main culprit on run: Politicians cleared in girl parade incident

RPO says old feud was behind DI Khan episode

ISLAMABAD: The teenage girl was paraded naked in Dera Ismail Khan because of an old feud and no political figure was involved in this incident, the Regional Police Officer (RPO) of Dera Ismail Khan said on Wednesday.

“All accused in this case have been arrested and arraigned in court except the main culprit. We are determined to solve this case no matter what,” DI Khan RPO Fida Shah told Senate’s Functional Committee on Human Rights.

Later, he spoke with this correspondent, insisting that there was no involvement of any politician as media reports suggested, saying that the incident was motivated by an old personal grudge.



“On early morning of October 27, the police was misled by a woman who reached a local police station with clothes in tatters, pleading for protection against some attackers,” he said.

Apparently, he said, this earlier incident was staged as part of a ruse to confuse the police and it was a precursor to the actual incident that was going to happen at 2:30pm involving Sharifan Bibi.

He said Bibi was the actual victim of the assault, but FIRs were registered the next morning in both cases on the orders of DI Khan DPO.

The FIR of the first incident was cancelled and legal proceedings were initiated against elements who tried to mislead the police by faking the incident to confuse the police about the actual case, he maintained.

Shah recounted police investigations according to which the victim’s brother was apparently involved with a girl of the said group.

The matter, he said, was resolved but tensions continued to simmer and the incident had occurred in reprisal.

He said bails of two accused had recently been cancelled and the trial had not yet concluded but the police’s case was strong enough to put all persons involved in this incident behind bars.

“A police team, headed by an inspector, has been deployed outside the victim’s residence and the Peshawar High Court (PHC) also asked the police to submit fortnightly progress report,” he said.

According to him, police sleuths were tailing the prime accused for first two days of the probe, but later he “disappeared”.

The RPO rejected reports suggesting that police had played a role in striking reconciliation between the two groups, saying that he did not know about any attempts by local lawyers to resolve the matter by paying money.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Senator Samina Saeed asked the head of National Commission on Status on Women Khawar Mumtaz if she had visited the area where the incident had occurred before she finalised the report about the case.



Mumtaz replied she was unable to reach victims of all such incidents, but local representatives had gone there. She said that the report had also called for psychological counselling of the victim.

The committee expressed satisfaction over the progress made by police and agreed to decide whether some members of the committee should go and meet the victim.

Meanwhile, RPO of Gujranwala Sultan Azam Taimori stated that the man involved in setting up a woman on fire in Mandi Bahauddin had been arrested. He said that 12 calls were traced between the woman and the man on the day of the incident.