HR bodies seek girl’s protection

PESHAWAR – Human rights organizations have asked the government to provide protection to a young girl in Shabqadar area of Charsadda district as they feared she would fall prey to honour-killing by her family.

The girl, Naureen, was granted bail by an additional district and sessions judge in Charsadda on August 31, in a case registered under the Zina Ordinance. The court directed that she should be released after furnishing two sureties of Rs 200,000 each and an undertaking from her father that she would not be harmed her.

Teams of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and Aurat Foundation visited the Charsadda District Jail on Tuesday where they met 17-year-old Naureen, a resident of Katozai village.

“Fourteen months ago I eloped with my friend Zahid, who promised to marry me,” Naureen told Dawn in the prison. But Zahid deceived her and after they had stayed together in a place in Peshawar for about two months, he left her, she said.

She was unable to go back to her home because she feared that she would be killed by her father or other family members, she said. When Zahid left her, she got a house cleaning job in Peshawar and she worked there for about a year.

She said that she had returned to her home on Aug 16 and on the same day she was arrested by the local police when her father had registered an FIR about her kidnapping. Naureen was willing to go to the Aurat Foundation’s shelter house, but later she decided to go with her father, said Mrs. Jamila Gillani, a representative of the HRCP.

“We want protection of the girl as she will be killed when she goes back to her home,” Mrs. Gillani said and asked the government to provide protection to the innocent girl.
Naureen’s uncle, Jumma Gul, hinted in the court that she might be killed when she returned to her home. “It is difficult for her to remain in the village after staying in somebody’s home for 14 months,” Jumma Gul told one HRCP representative.

Source: Dawn

Date:9/1/2004