Kohistan video case: K-P government confirms killing of three people

None of family members came to collect the bodies that were buried as amaanat.

PESHAWAR:

The provincial government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Saturday confirmed the killing of three people in connection with a feud related to the Kohistan video case, which had kicked up a storm in the country last year.

The men were killed when assailants attacked the house of Afzal Kohistani, a prime witness in the Kohistan video case, in which four girls were declared fornicators after they were allegedly caught on video singing and dancing at a wedding ceremony in violation of the tribal custom of gender segregation.



However, the commission formed by the Supreme Court had visited the area and confirmed that the girls were  in fact alive and had not been killed.

Talking to Express on Saturday, K-P Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that the men were gunned down due to enmity over the case. He added that the bodies were temporarily buried by government officials and if relatives want, the bodies could be exhumed and handed over to them for burial. He said that FIRs were lodged against 18 accused allegedly involved in the killing of the men. “We have directed the police to apprehend the culprits as soon as possible,” Ifitikhar said.



Furthermore, the minister said that none of the relatives or family members of the victims came to collect the bodies after the post-mortem of the slain brothers.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2013.