Jirga murders: KP govt flies in team for Kohistan ‘cover-up’
Provincial authorities want tribesmen to help prove that the women are indeed alive.
KOHISTAN:
The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government on Thursday airlifted a four-member team via helicopter to Peech Bela in an effort to cover up the alleged execution of five innocent women on the orders of a jirga.
Their mission was to convince the Azadkhel tribesmen to help the government prove that the said women were safe in their homes and the evidence should be admissible in the Supreme Court that has fixed June 20 for hearing the case, sources said.
The team comprising Maulana Asmatullah former provincial minister of MMA, PML-N district president Syed Gul Badshah, Moulvi Javed the alleged head of the controversial jirga and DSP Palas Bazimir Khan was sent to Seertaiy village of Peech Bela via helicopter, official sources said.
The trip came ahead of a July 16 judicial commission tour of the area. The commission is headed by a woman additional judge from Swabi.
Journalists face threats
The journalists, who broke the news of the jirga decree and later covered the alleged killing of five women on the orders of a jirga in Kohistan district, are facing threats from the local tribes and the administration.
Shamsur Rehman, a stringer for a local Urdu daily, said that during an encounter with a local journalist the Hazara division commissioner blamed the media persons of Kohistan and Hazara for maligning the Kohistani customs by exposing the murders of the women.
Qari Saeed, a senior journalist, said that the commissioner told him that as a journalist he was slinging mud on the honour of Kohistan. Senior police officials of the district were provoking the local tribes against the journalist calling them traitors of Kohistan.
DSP Palas, Bazimir Khan, rejected the report that he or his senior officers had ever hurled any threat to the media persons.
Bazimir Khan asserted that the women were alive and would remain unharmed.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 15th, 2012.
The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government on Thursday airlifted a four-member team via helicopter to Peech Bela in an effort to cover up the alleged execution of five innocent women on the orders of a jirga.
Their mission was to convince the Azadkhel tribesmen to help the government prove that the said women were safe in their homes and the evidence should be admissible in the Supreme Court that has fixed June 20 for hearing the case, sources said.
The team comprising Maulana Asmatullah former provincial minister of MMA, PML-N district president Syed Gul Badshah, Moulvi Javed the alleged head of the controversial jirga and DSP Palas Bazimir Khan was sent to Seertaiy village of Peech Bela via helicopter, official sources said.
The trip came ahead of a July 16 judicial commission tour of the area. The commission is headed by a woman additional judge from Swabi.
Journalists face threats
The journalists, who broke the news of the jirga decree and later covered the alleged killing of five women on the orders of a jirga in Kohistan district, are facing threats from the local tribes and the administration.
Shamsur Rehman, a stringer for a local Urdu daily, said that during an encounter with a local journalist the Hazara division commissioner blamed the media persons of Kohistan and Hazara for maligning the Kohistani customs by exposing the murders of the women.
Qari Saeed, a senior journalist, said that the commissioner told him that as a journalist he was slinging mud on the honour of Kohistan. Senior police officials of the district were provoking the local tribes against the journalist calling them traitors of Kohistan.
DSP Palas, Bazimir Khan, rejected the report that he or his senior officers had ever hurled any threat to the media persons.
Bazimir Khan asserted that the women were alive and would remain unharmed.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 15th, 2012.