Daily Times

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police, Friday, made excellent progress in the killing of Afzal Kohistani–responsible for exposing the Kohistan video scandal–and arrested a man from Palis tehsil.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information Shaukat Yousafzai alleged that the Masoom Khan, son of Hashim Jan, named as the main suspect in the first information report (FIR), was arrested from Abbottabad on the intelligence-based operation alongside a Kalashnikov and cartridges.

“Raids are being conducted for the arrests of the other suspects,” Yousafzai added.

A day earlier, police had arrested Afzal’s nephew, Faiz ur Rehman, alleging that he could be behind Afzal’s murder.

In support of its claim, the police said that when the murder took place, Rehman was accompanying Afzal. The personal, licensed firearm of Afzal was also recovered from Rehman, which raised doubts about his involvement.

The family of Afzal had, however, dismissed the police version, saying that the police was covering up its negligence after it had turned down Afzal’s request to provide him security.

Bin Yasir, Afzal’s brother, said that he had sent Rehman with Afzal to accompany him and he didn’t believe that he had murdered him.

He lamented, “My three brothers have already been killed by our rivals. We repeatedly voiced our concerns for security but no one did anything for us.”

Kohistani was shot dead on Wednesday night at Children Hospital Road in Abbottabad’s Gami Adda area by unidentified gunmen who managed to flee afterwards. The firing incident left three others wounded.

He had brought to light a video of his brothers dancing in May 2012, in which his some girls were also seen singing and clapping. Soon after the footage was leaked, a tribal jirga decreed that the girls and boys be killed in line with ‘riwaj’ (a tribal custom).

Earlier, Kohistani had appealed to the court that all five girls in the video, Bazgha, Sireen Jan, Amna, Begum Jan, and Shaheen, were all killed on directives by the jirga.

Last December, police authorities caught four suspects in this regard who confessed to killing the five women in Kohistan six years after the video had emerged.

In a suo moto notice taken up by the former chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, on June 7, 2012, a fact-finding mission was established on July 17, 2012, to investigate the case.

The commission had produced its report on July 20, 2017, after paying a visit to Kohistan, which stated that the girls were alive.

One of the commission members, Dr Farzana Bari, had expressed her doubts that they were shown some other girls clad in burqa and veil.

On January 3, 2013, Kohistani’s three brothers, Shah Faisal, Sher Wali, and Raffiduddin, were killed inside their homes by the girls’ tribespeople.

Meanwhile, Dr Bari, seeking the assistance of human rights activists and Kohistani, conducted some tests to ensure that these girls were the same, results of which did not match.

To an appeal to reopen the case, the apex court directed the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to match fingerprints and CNICs. The tests came back negative.

On July 31, 2018, a new case was registered under the Palas police station in accordance with the supreme court orders.

In December 2018, four suspects, Umar Khan, Saber, Mohamad Sarfraz, and Saeer, were arrested in this regard. Upon interrogation, the suspects confessed to shooting dead three girls, Begum Jan, Sireen Jan, and Bazgha, after which they disposed of the bodies in Nala Chorh. They had said that Amna and Shaheen were still alive and would be presented before the court.

Kohistan District Police Officer (DPO) Iftikhar Khan, had said that raids were underway to arrest eight suspects who had produced other girls for fake identification.

Kohistani, however, said the suspects were lying, while adding, “they killed all five girls by severe torture and are not identifying graves as it will reveal their brutality.”

Published in Daily Times, March 9^th 2019.