ISLAMABAD - It has been almost five years since an honour killing incident in Kohistan sent chills down the nation’s spine, a commission investigating the episode has raised doubts about the “reality” of the two girls presented before it while casting doubt on the “veracity” the three other girls, who recorded their statements.
Earlier, the commission members visited the village where it was claimed that the girls were alive and living a normal life. Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa Advocate General Abdul Latif Yousafzai submitted a report before a Supreme Court bench on behalf of a district and sessions judge Kohistan about the status of the five ‘girls’ seen in the video.
The report said that the two girls, out of five, produced before the commission, and named Siran Jan and Bazeega, were not the ones allegedly visible in the video. It also said: “In the light of the NADRA record, it would not be unsafe to conclude and presume that the other girls produced before us were also not the very girls visible in video scandal”.
On November 10, a two-member Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and Justice Mushir Alam had ordered the sessions judge Kohistan to accompany the DPO and a senior lady police officer to the village where the five girls were stated to be living a normal life. The ‘girls’ Amina wife of Murad Gul, Siran Jan, wife of Jantazeer, Begum Jan, wife of Yasir, Bazeega, wife of Idrees, and Shaheen, wife of Habibullah, were produced before the commission one by one. “However, the elders of village didn’t allow them to take pictures of the girls on the pretext that already a lot has been contributed to their defamation and fresh pictures would likely to add more in the future,” said the report.
“Amina’s thumb impression on her statement was of no use as both hands thumbs were burnt. She told the commission that it had happened owing to kitchen work, apparently not appealing to reason and common sense,” the report said. Due to this, it could not be matched with the thumb impression taken by the commission earlier.
Siran Jan, the second girl produced before the commission, and her father failed to tell her age. “By appearance, she was not more than 16/17 years old. In 2010 she would be 9/10 years old,” the report said adding as per the NADRA record, her date of birth was 02-02-93, which contradicted her appearance.
The report said, third girl, Begum Jan, resembled to be the girl visible in the video and looked 16/17 years old and in 2010 she would have been 9/10. The fourth girl Bazeega, was also found resembling with the photo. The fifth one Shaheen, told the commission that she was 13, but her elder interfered and said: “she is 16-year-old”.
The report said that despite clear direction, except for Shaheen’s, the girls husbands were not present throughout the corroboration. Siran Jan told the commission that her husband was in jail.
The report states that according to the NADRA record, Siran Jan and Bazeega had CNICs, which they prepared in 2011. However, their family vehemently denied. The report said that the denial by the girls’ parents and the NADRA record alone was sufficient to hold them untruthful.
The report said when Siran and Bazeega thumb’s impressions were matched with the NADRA record in Islamabad the result was negative.
Former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhmmad Chaudhry had taken suo moto on the application of Afzal Kohistani, a petitioner, that four young women and a minor girl were killed on May 30, 2012 in accordance with the Jirga’s decree. However, their bodies were never recovered. The Supreme Court on June 20, 2012, disposed of the case after a delegation comprising Civil Judge Munira Abbasi, Bushra Gohar, Farzana Bari and Fauzia Saeed, and the officials from federal and the Khyber Pukhtoonkhawa adminsitartions visited the village, where incident had allegedly taken place, and submitted a report. The case was reopened in August, when Afzal filed a fresh application urging the court he has new evidence and insisted that the girls were dead and three of his brothers were also killed.
