Legal action sought over jirga in rape, suicide case
A fact-finding team of the Sindh Human Rights Department (SHRD) has suggested legal action against influential individuals of Tharparkar involved in holding a jirga purportedly to force the family of a rape and forced suicide to pardon the man convicted in the case in return for blood money.
The committee noted that 16-year-old Leela Meghwar she took her own her life in March 2020, six months after she was raped in a remote hamlet in Diplo sub-district. She was also pregnant.
A Mithi court had convicted Koonpji Thakur on charges of rape, forced abortion and suicide in September 2021, sentencing him to 24 years in jail with a fine of Rs9.5 million.
The fact-finding team advised legal action against the people who held the jirga in February this year despite a court ban while calling for police protection for the victim's family. Jirgas are prohibited in the province, and rape is an offense that cannot be pardoned.
The Sindh chief minister's aide on human rights, Surendar Valasai, had constituted a three-member committee, led by Kashif Bajeer Advocate and comprising Peeral Marri Advocate and Noorjahan Ghelaro as members. They met with the victim's family, villagers, officials, and journalists and submitted their report to the SHRD.
The committee urged the commission to appoint a judicial member to conduct further research into the suicide case. It said that convict was a member of a powerful family, while the family members of the deceased are daily-wage labourers.
The committee suggested that the Sindh police chief order setting up of a police post in front of the houses of the victim's family and to ensure protection to the community so they weren't forced to drop the case.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 18th, 2023.