PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) was requested on Monday by the mother of a teenage girl who had been stripped naked and paraded in Dera Ismail Khan for supervising the investigation of the case and redeeming their family honour by doing justice.
In her petition filed through lawyer Qazi Muhammad Anwar, Maheen Bibi submitted that they had not been provided with any security against the gang responsible despite making several requests to the government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, nor were they given justice thus far.
The victim’s mother submitted that some men had in October intercepted her daughter at gunpoint while she was fetching water from a pond and disrobed her after which they forced her to run in the streets of the village. She said the culprits also filmed her daughter.
The petition provided further details of the incident saying that two years ago the victim’s brother Sajid was accused of teasing and gifting a mobile phone to a girl of the rival tribe. The matter was taken to a local jirga and the victim’s family was ordered to pay a fine of Rs300,000.
The petition claimed that the girl’s family had paid the fine, yet, last month she was attacked in an act of revenge against her brother.
In her plea, the petitioner made the KP government through the chief secretary, KP home secretary, Inspector General of Police, DI Khan Deputy Inspector General, Chodwan police station SHO, and a senior member of KP Board of revenue respondents.
The victim had lodged an FIR with the Daraban police after the incident, following which the police arrested eight suspects and recovered video footage from their possession. Three of the suspects confessed their involvement during a court hearing earlier this month.
The accused said that they had settled the matter with the girl’s family in a tribal jirga two years ago, however, they claimed that Sajid had not ceased his activities.
They said they took up the matter with the family elders and decided that they would take revenge on Sajid by dishonouring his sister.
Earlier this month, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lawmaker Dawar Khan Kundi had accused PTI leader and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Minister Ali Amin Gandapur of facilitating the accused involved in the incident.
Responding to the allegations levelled against him by Kundi, Gandapur had said the attempts to link him with the incident were “shameful”.
