Kohistan: Girl murdered on orders of jirga over viral video

• Another girl rescued by police after magistrate records statement.
• Video also featured boys who’ve gone into hiding since the incident.
• Police begins investigation to trace culprits who killed girl.

MANSEHRA: A young girl has been allegedly murdered and another rescued by police in a case involving a viral video in Kolai-Palas district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, The News reported on Monday.

The girl was killed on Sunday in the Barsharyal village of Kohistan’s Palas — 150km northwest of Mansehra — by her own family on orders issued by a local jirga.

The video, which went viral on social media around four days ago, also featured boys who are said to have since gone into hiding.

Meanwhile, the body of the girl was shifted to a nearby health facility for doctors to carry out medico-legal formalities and was later handed over to the family.

Deputy Superintendent of Police, Palas, Masood Khan told journalists that one of the two girls, whose video went viral, had been killed, while the other was rescued and produced before a local magistrate to record a statement.

According to Khan, the girl said she felt no threat to her life by her family and wanted to go with them instead of being shifted to Dar-ul-Aman.

The cop said the Station House Officer (SHO) of the Palas police station lodged a first information report of the murder by himself under sections 302/311 and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

“We have launched an investigation to trace those who killed the girl and who either advised or convened a jirga and sentenced her to death,” he said.

The DSP said nobody was above the law and all those involved in brutal killing would be brought to justice at any cost.

The jirga in such murders executed in the name of honour declares men and women as culprits and eliminates them.

The incident comes more than 10 years after a similar chilling incident left the country shocked when five women were murdered on a jirga decree after their video clapping to a man dancing at a family event went viral in 2011.

Four brothers of the man in the video, too, were killed later, while the case was highlighted by their other brother Afzal Kohistani in 2012, who was also shot dead in March 2019 in Abbottabad after severe threats to his life.

The case, which garnered international attention, was taken to the Supreme Court in 2013 after which then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry took its suo motu notice and sentenced those involved to life imprisonment.