Abuse case: Bail plea of Haripur jirga men rejected

HARIPUR:

The bail application of three jirga members charged with abetting the public abuse of a woman in Neelor Bala was rejected on Wednesday.

A court of an additional session judge rejected the bail. A similar bail application of the three was earlier rejected by the court of judical magistrate on June 23.

The Saddar police had booked Abdul Rasheed Abbasi, Raqeeb Khan and Matloob Khan of Neelor Bala village under section 202 and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code. They were allegedly part of the jirga that instigated four brothers to ‘settle scores’ with victim Shaheen’s* family.

One of the brothers, Shabbir* accused his wife Sadia* of having illicit relations with Shaheen’s son Karim* and took the matter to the jirga, who found Karim and his cousin Arshad* guilty of raping Sadia.

Shabbir and three of his brothers – Manzoor, Arsalan and Imran – went on to allegedly attack Shaheen, strip her and parade her naked through the streets of the village.

The police also charged the three jirga members with intentionally concealing the information of disrobing the victim.

The accused were arrested on June 12 and were on judicial remand in Haripur jail. Following the rejection of the first bail plea, the accused moved to the next forum of sessions court praying for release on bail. While arguing on behalf of the victim, Advocates Khurshid Azhar, Gulnaz Rasheed, Javed Sheikh and Shahid Mehbood contended that the offence was not only against a hapless poor woman but against society in general. They said that the act has left every woman feeling insecure.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2011.