Kohistan video controversy: Four accused in triple murder arrested
Surviving brother says his tribe is being deprived of water.
Surviving brother says his tribe is being deprived of water. PHOTO: FILE
KOHISTAN:
The Kohistan police claimed on Monday to have apprehended four accused in a triple murder case connected to the Kohistan video controversy.
Kohistan District Police Officer (DPO) Akbar Ali told The Express Tribune that the head of the jirga, which had sentenced women and men seen singing and clapping together in a video to death last year, was among those arrested.
“We have arrested four accused from Hasan Abdal and a few others are also expected to be nabbed very soon,” Ali said, adding that he would arrest the remaining eight charged with the murder of three brothers. The siblings’ other brothers include the two men filmed in the leaked video.
According to the DPO, Maulvi Javed, Maulvi Noorul Haq, Sabeer Khan and Mosam Khan were taken into custody from a house in Hasan Abdal early on Monday. Raids are to continue in search of the rest of the accused, nominated in the murder case of Sher Wali, Shah Faisal and Safiuddin on January 3.
The DPO dismissed reports that heavily armed men from the rival tribes of Azadkhel and Salehkhel were ready for a ‘trench battle’, adding that there was peace in the area.
Meanwhile, another brother of the murdered siblings, Afzal Kohistani, who had also taken the video controversy to the Supreme Court last year, told media men via telephone that over 80 members of his tribe were being deprived of water by the Azadkhel tribe, which had halted water supply to their area. Kohistani belongs to the Salehkhel tribe.
An informed source from the Salekhel tribe in Kohistan’s Pattan Tehsil told The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity that the elders of his tribe have sent an emphatic message to the Azadkhel tribe. They should declare that the five women seen in the video have been murdered for mixing with men from another tribe, and murder another two men from the Salakhel tribe – so that they could call it equal.
But, if the murder of the five women is not declared, according to the message, Azadkhel should be ready for revenge – Salehkhel has vowed to kill two members of Azadkhel for each brother murdered.
The DPO, however, has denied this information, saying that this was ‘mere guesswork’.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 8th, 2013.
The Kohistan police claimed on Monday to have apprehended four accused in a triple murder case connected to the Kohistan video controversy.
Kohistan District Police Officer (DPO) Akbar Ali told The Express Tribune that the head of the jirga, which had sentenced women and men seen singing and clapping together in a video to death last year, was among those arrested.
“We have arrested four accused from Hasan Abdal and a few others are also expected to be nabbed very soon,” Ali said, adding that he would arrest the remaining eight charged with the murder of three brothers. The siblings’ other brothers include the two men filmed in the leaked video.
According to the DPO, Maulvi Javed, Maulvi Noorul Haq, Sabeer Khan and Mosam Khan were taken into custody from a house in Hasan Abdal early on Monday. Raids are to continue in search of the rest of the accused, nominated in the murder case of Sher Wali, Shah Faisal and Safiuddin on January 3.
The DPO dismissed reports that heavily armed men from the rival tribes of Azadkhel and Salehkhel were ready for a ‘trench battle’, adding that there was peace in the area.
Meanwhile, another brother of the murdered siblings, Afzal Kohistani, who had also taken the video controversy to the Supreme Court last year, told media men via telephone that over 80 members of his tribe were being deprived of water by the Azadkhel tribe, which had halted water supply to their area. Kohistani belongs to the Salehkhel tribe.
An informed source from the Salekhel tribe in Kohistan’s Pattan Tehsil told The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity that the elders of his tribe have sent an emphatic message to the Azadkhel tribe. They should declare that the five women seen in the video have been murdered for mixing with men from another tribe, and murder another two men from the Salakhel tribe – so that they could call it equal.
But, if the murder of the five women is not declared, according to the message, Azadkhel should be ready for revenge – Salehkhel has vowed to kill two members of Azadkhel for each brother murdered.
The DPO, however, has denied this information, saying that this was ‘mere guesswork’.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 8th, 2013.