Four Kohistan women alive, says Farzana Bari

A member of the team sent to Kohistan on the orders of the Supreme Court to ascertain the status of the five women suspected of having been murdered confirmed on Thursday that four of the women were alive. The court had been hearing a suo moto notice on the issue since reports came up that clerics had allegedly issued orders for the killing of four women and two men after a mobile phone video emerged of the six singing and dancing at a wedding in a remote village in Kohistan. According to allegations levelled by Mohammad Afzal, a relative of the women, the four women seen in the video and another woman had been killed by their relatives in the village of Pales. Speaking to media representatives from Kohistan, human rights activist Farzana Bari said that four of the women were alive. However, Bari said that it would not be possible to produce the women before the court. Bari said she had personally met at least two of the women who she said were well. She further said that their bodies bore no marks of physical torture. The activist said that the team had also recorded a video of the women. However, Afzal reiterated that the women had been killed. Speaking to media representatives outside the Supreme Court, Afzal again said that the women had been killed and their throats had been slit.

ePaper - Nawaiwaqt