Human chain: Protesters for reopening of Kohistan video case

Jirga condemned five women, two men to death for singing, dancing at a wedding.

ISLAMABAD:

There were five dummy coffins and a funeral. The participants of the procession were not family members. Instead of murmuring prayers, women carrying the symbolic coffins on their shoulders were chanting slogans.

From the traditional embellishments on their clothes, it was evident that hundreds of these women forming a human chain belonged to various districts from across Pakistan. Although distinct in their outlook, all of them had come together to raise their voice for the same concern— justice for women.

There were no tears, just aggression in the eyes of women that had gathered at D-Chowk on Saturday.

Holding placards and chanting slogans, they stood around coffins that were marked with a statement in bold font “Where are my killers?”

These women had come to seek justice for the lives of women that had allegedly been killed by their relatives in the Kohistan video case. They appealed to the chief justice to reopen the case and order that the women, if they were alive, be produced in court.

In case of failure, the murders of these women must be brought to justice, they demanded.

Amid the rush of women, a man dressed in crisp white shalwar kameez and a black waistcoat stood out. Afzal Kohistani had come to seek justice for two of his elder brothers — Gul Nazar and Bin Yasir — who were allegedly murdered for having some connection with the video.

In 2012, after receiving life threats, Kohistani moved to Abbottabad with his wife and two children. “Although I am here risking my life seeking justice for my brothers’ murder, I had disconnected myself from my area to protect my children” said Kohistani.

For 45-year-old Raja Bashir Ahmed, a contractual employee of the Pakistan army, nine bullets shot into his younger brother, Nosherwan Adil’s chest in front of his eyes on 18th June 2013 is a scene engraved in his mind forever.  Adil was 40 and left behind a wife and ten children. “My brother was an innocent headmaster in a local school. What was his fault?” asked Ahmed.

The brothers were in Kamila Bazaar in Kohistan for some work when it happened. “They were fearless. They came out of nowhere, in the middle of the busy market and started firing directly at him. He fell in my arms and died on the spot” said Ahmed. “How do these murders define honour?” He questioned. “Who are they to judge what is right or wrong,” he added with numb eyes.

Ahmed registered an FIR, but has little no hope of getting justice. He felt that such murderers are growing in numbers and are stretching across areas that are relatively hard to access.

Pattan Development Organisation National Coordinator Sarwar Bari said that the population of women in Pakistan is less than men solely because of prolonged anti-women behaviour. Bari said the state had failed to implement laws to change attitudes to uplift the status of women in Pakistan.

The assembly included women from Shikarpur, Kashmore, Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Dera Ismail Khan, Muzafargarh, Multan, Swat, Abbottabad, Toba Tek Singh, Jhang, Peshwar, Lahore and Faisalabad.

The kohistan video scandal hit the headlines when a local jirga in Kohistan condemned four women and two men to death for singing and dancing during a wedding ceremony.

Media reports of the murder of five women shown in the video led former chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry to take suo motu notice of the case and form two fact-finding missions that were then sent to Kohistan.

Despite strong doubts and reservations on the second mission report by one of the three mission members, the case was disposed off. Later, on January 4th 2012, three elder brothers of the boys appearing in Kohistan video were brutally murdered, allegedly by close relatives of the women in the video

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2014.