Kohistan video case: Police arrests remaining suspects in triple murders

Police arrested the remaining seven suspects believed to have murdered three brothers of Afzal Kohistani.

The Kohistan police have on Saturday arrested the remaining seven of the 12 accused in the triple murder case from Mansehra and Kohistan, Express News reported.

The accused were charged with the murder of three brothers, Sher Wali, Rafiud Din and Shah Faisal on January 3 in village Gadaar. The three were brothers of Afzal Kohistani.

The police had earlier arrested five persons including Molvi Noor ul Haq, Sabeer Khan, Jengir Khan, Molvi Javed and Mosam Khan, they all were charged for abetment in the murder of three brothers.

Molvi Javed is the elder of Azadkhel tribe and runs a seminary in Mansehra and was accused of chairing the controversial jirga held in May last year where five women of their own tribe and two boys from Salehkhel tribe were condemned for mingling with each other at a marriage ceremony. The four women namely Bazgha, Sereen Jan, Begum and Amina were caught in the footage clapping and singing while two boys later identified as Bin Yasir and Gul Nazar were dancing.

On the alleged decree of jirga, according to Afzal Kohistani, all the four women and another teenaged girl Shaheen, were slaughtered and buried secretly on May 31. A

fter the story broke, the two boys were arrested and sent to jail on charges of making cell phone footage and making it public. However they were later bailed out from the local court.

A fact finding mission assigned to submit report to the Supreme Court, rejected Afzal's plea declaring that all the women were alive and jirga headed by Molvi Javed assured them of their security.

But the this complicated case again took a new turn when the three elder brothers of Afzal Kohistan were shot dead for which he claimed that it was the repercussion of video film and whatever his family faced was the outcome of jirga's decision.

Kohistan also filed application with the Supreme Court seeking reopening of his case as he still believes that all the women have been killed and many more could be killed if the jirga system continues to prevail and the culprits are not brought to justice.