Afzal says that local SHO, the DSP, and the Salay Khan tribe are misrepresenting the facts with political backing. PHOTO: INP
Rights activist and educator Farzana Bari has urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan to reopen the Kohistan killings case and order the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa administration to take punitive measures against those responsible.
“It is unfortunate that the killing spree is continuing. As recently as January, three brothers of the key witness were killed and no action was taken by the K-P government or the local administration,” she said.
She was accompanied by Afzal Khan --- the key witness in the case --- and rights activist Nasir Shah, a Pakistan Peoples Party MNA.
“We demand security for the girls, if they are alive. If not, then there should be through investigation into their killings,” Bari said.
She said whole administration of K-P is politicising the case and trying to brush it under the rug. “They have affiliations with local tribals. Dasu Dam is to be built in the area and former MNA Ismatullah has good terms with them as well.”
Bari urged civil society, the media and the SC to play their roles in unveiling the hidden hands and end barbaric traditions in Kohistan. “Concrete action against those responsible will set the precedent that nobody is above the law, otherwise the killing spree will just make the killers more fearless,” she added.
The Supreme Court in June 2012 took suo motu notice of the Kohistan death decree in which clerics had allegedly issued orders to kill four women and two men. This was after a mobile phone video emerged of the six singing and dancing at a wedding in a remote village in Kohistan. In January this year, at least four people were killed and five women were critically injured when assailants attacked the house of a prime witness in the case.
Afzal said the local station house officer, the deputy superintendent of police, and the Salay Khan tribe are misrepresenting the facts with political backing.
“I am blamed for raising my voice and maligned as wanting to go abroad,” he continued. “This is rubbish. I have no such intentions and am going nowhere,” he said.
Shah said dancing at marriages and such events is part of the culture of this country and called the alleged jirga verdict a farce. “Here, powerful people think the weak have no rights and only the rich can rule and have their say in the affairs of society,” he said.
Fouzia Kasuri from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf also condemned the killings and tendered her party’s full support in pursuing and following the case.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 7th, 2013.
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