Fourth no-show: Police fail to produce ‘missing’ girls involved in Kohistan video scandal

Parents say presenting women in court against traditions.

HARIPUR:

During a district court hearing in Kohistan on Wednesday, police once again failed to produce five ‘missing’ girls, along with their parents. The girls appeared in a controversial video in 2012 and women’s rights groups suspect they were killed as a result.

Meanwhile, the father of one of the girls, Sarfraz, filed a petition with the Abbottabad bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) for a stay order against the case, the petitioner’s counsel Mustafa Khan told the media on Wednesday.

The petitioner requested the district judge be barred from hearing the case, as the court’s directives were against the traditions of Kohistan. Citing the conservative nature of their society, he said their women could not be presented at court.

The division bench of PHC has set April 28 as the date to hear arguments. District Judge Irshad was served a notice asking him to send the case file to the high court.

How it started

Four women of the Azadkhel tribe – Bazigha, Begum Jan, Sereen Jan and Amina – were filmed singing and clapping while two boys belonging to the Salekhel tribe were dancing during a wedding ceremony in 2012. When the video was leaked to the Azadkhel tribe, a jirga comprising 12 elders condemned the four women along with a minor girl, Shaheen, for arranging the gathering. It also condemned the two boys and their families to death.

Later, it was reported that the four women in the video, along with the girl, were killed on May 30, 2012 in accordance with the jirga’s decree. The Supreme Court took suo motu notice and sent a fact-finding mission to the area on June 4, 2012 that concluded that the women were alive. However, the case was re-opened after a petition was filed with a Kohistan district judge in February by the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW), Islamabad, accusing the parents of providing false information about their daughters.

During the last three hearings that began in February, Kohistan district and sessions judge Sardar Muhammad Irshad asked police to produce the missing girls, or their bodies, along with their parents who insist their children are alive.

On March 18, police produced a written statement of the parents of all the five girls, which claimed the girls were alive in the remote village of Achar.

During the last hearing earlier this month, police blamed the bifurcation of Kohistan for once again failing to bring forward five women related to the notorious cell phone video.

The court issued notices to the administration of Lower Kohistan but Wednesday’s hearing was as unsatisfactory as those preceding it. The case has been adjourned till May 7.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24^th, 2014.