–Prosecutor tells court fact-finding commission was misinformed about murders
ISLAMABAD: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa additional advocate general told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the five Kohistan girls seen cheering on two male dancers in a 2011 video were killed as per KP Police’s findings.
The case came to the fore in 2011 when reports emerged that an online video of a young man dancing before a group of five teenage girls had led to murders allegedly sanctioned by a Jirga.
Afzal, whose brothers were in the video, had appealed to the court, saying that the five girls — Bazgha, Sireen Jan, Amna, Begum Jan and fifth girl Shaheen, who took them to the programme — were all murdered on the orders of the Jirga.
Subsequently, the top court took the suo moto notice of the killings.
As the hearing went underway on Wednesday, the additional advocate general said that the suspects who were initially arrested kept denying the killing and insisted that the women were alive. He said the imposters were produced in front of the commission and that it was misinformed that no one had been murdered.
Upon which, the CJP recalled the court had formed three commissions to look into the matter and inquired what their reports had revealed.
Rights activist Farzana Bari was also part of one of these commissions. The CJP asked what was Bari’s view on the issue. To which, the prosecutor replied Bari disagreed with the committee’s report. He said her suspicions that the girls were murdered were correct.
Police have named nine people in the challan, he apprised the court.
The top court then ordered the prosecutor to prepare a challan and submit it within 10 days and wrapped up the case. The case is ongoing in a local court in Kohistan.
The top judge further said that “the victims’ families can file an appeal to transfer the case to an anti-terrorism court”.
“If the victims’ families feel at any point that justice has not been served, they can file an appeal in the Supreme Court to hear the case again,” the chief justice told a brother of one of the victims.
