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| India-Pakistan |
| Kohistan death decree: Women alive and protected, elders tell officials |
| 2012-06-06 |
| [Dawn] Elders and holy mans of Pales village in Kohistan ...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns.... district on Monday denied the alleged killing of five women on a jirga decree over singing and dancing along with men in a marriage function, and told an official fact-finding mission that all the women shown in a mobile phone video were alive and in safe hands.A section of the media had earlier reported the killing of the said women on May 30 amid denial by the Hazara division administration. Earlier in the day, the mission comprising Hazara commissioner Khalid Khan Umerzai, DIG Dr Mohammad Naeem, Kohistan DCO Aqaal Badshah and DPO Abdul Majid Afridi flew to Bechbala Gadar area on directives of Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. "The women, who are reported to have been killed on the decree of a jirga, are alive and as per the accounts of local elders and families of the said women, no one can kill them on the basis of a suspicious video," DCO Kohistan Aqaal Badshah told news hounds here. Mr Badshah said two brothers of Mohammad Afzal, who had 'broken' the news of the women's killing, were also incarcerated Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! "Besides recording the statements of the family members, Learned Elders of Islam (holy mans) and elders, we also searched for new graves but found nothing in support of the claim of Mohammad Afzal about the killing of five women to media on Sunday," he said. Mr Badshah quoted female members of the said women's families as appealing to the media not to disgrace them by airing the dancing video on TV channels. He also quoted a holy man as saying that neither women nor men seen in the video were labeled as perverted and hence, no question of killing them arose. A source close to the fact-finding mission said elders and holy mans made it clear to the mission that they could extend whatever surety was required under the law to confirm that women were alive but they (women) couldn't be produced in front of ghair mehram (non-relatives) in line with local traditions. He said police had incarcerated Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! Gulnazray and Binyasir, who were also seen in the video, from Allai area before shifting them to Kohistan. Police on Sunday lodged FIR against them under section 509, 505, 292 of Pakistain Penal Code and 18-Motion Picture Ordinance. Also in the day, Chief Justice of Pakistain Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry took a suo motu ...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means I saw what you did, you bastard... notice of the alleged killing of women and asked the district administration to produce the women on June 6 before him. Mohammad Afzal and Shahzaday, who had allegedly made the video on mobile phone, and then transferred to others, were still on the lam and police were raiding at different places in Hazara to apprehend them. District police officer of Kohistan Abdul Majid Afridi had said once Mohammad Afzal, his brothers and Shahzady were incarcerated Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! , then the truth about the jirga decree and the killings would be out. |
| Posted by:Fred |