Pakistan Gender News Voice of Gender News From Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) Thursday ordered the inspector-general police (IGP), Balochistan, to take personal interest in the case of burying five women alive last year and arrest the remaining culprits.
A three-member bench of the apex court comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Ch Ijaz Ahmed and Justice Jawwad S Khawaja also ordered that the challans of the remaining culprits be submitted till July 14.
Appearing on a notice, Nizam Shahid, DPO Naseerabad, informed the court that only two women were killed and buried in the name of honour killing, whereas the other three women are alive, whom affidavits had been obtained by the police.
He said 16 accused were arrested, 9 were absconder, whereas 8 were sentenced by a trial court. He said a local jirga, led by one Allah Bukhsh Imrani, who runs a filling station, had declared the women as kari (accused of adultery) and ordered their killing. He further said that police had raided the residence of Imrani and recovered arms; however, he fled away before the raid and was still absconding. He said an SHO–Ali Akbar–who had helped Imrani to flee from the police raid had been demoted.
However, the accused SHO, who was present in the courtroom to pursue his application against his demotion, told the court that he did not do so and was illegally demoted. The court, however, directed the DPO to look into the matter.
The DPO told the court that some influential of the area, including MPAs, nazims and others, were against him and he was transferred to Quetta from Naseerabad. On last hearing, the court had rejected the police report on the incident submitted by Advocate General, Balochistan, Salahuddin Mengal.
Source: The News
Date:6/12/2009
