Shikarpur jirga: Grave site of girls slain for honour found

Inquiry officer waits for judge’s permission to exhume bodies.

SUKKUR: The investigating officer has finally found the spot where two girls, belonging to the Mahar tribe, were buried after they were killed for ‘honour’ in Shikarpur.

On Saturday, the investigating officer - Crime Branch Sukkur DSP Abdul Qudoos Kalwar - found the spot where the two girls were dumped after being killed on March 2.  A letter has been written to the district and sessions judge in Shikarpur to order the formation of a medical board and appoint a judicial magistrate to exhume the bodies.

The victims, Shani and Reema, both daughters of a schoolteacher, Abdullah Mahar, were residents of Qasim Mahar village. After their murder, a jirga allegedly presided over by MNA Ghous Bux Mahar was held at Mahar House in Wazirabad. The jirga imposed a fine of Rs2.4 million on two men of the Jagirani tribe for kidnapping the girls and keeping them in illegal detention. It did not, however, include the murder charges in the verdict.

Later, a case was registered against 13 men including, MNA Ghous Bux, the girls’ father Abdullah Mahar and his cousin Sanaullah Mahar and others. Abdullah and Sanaullah were arrested by the police and handed over to DSP Kalwar, who was appointed as the investigation officer by the apex court after Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani took suo motu notice.

During the interrogation, the accused informed the police that both the girls have been buried in an agricultural land belonging to Rehmatullah Mahar near the Kamil Mahar village situated in Jehan Khan police limits. Once the grave was spotted, the police set up a checkpoint at the site and are waiting for the court’s permission before they exhume the bodies for post-mortem, DSP Kalwar told The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2014.