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| Swat video is genuine, claim activists |
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Sunday, April 05, 2009
By Usman Manzoor
Islamabad: While the video tape of a seventeen-year-old girl being flogged by the Taliban has led to countrywide protests and condemnation, the NWFP government has questioned the authenticity of the video tape. But those who released the video claim that the video is both genuine and recent.
Samar Minallah, the human rights activist and documentary film-maker, while talking to The News said that the video was being circulated from mobile phone to mobile phone and from person to person. She said that she received the video via email from a human rights activist of Swat. Talking about the authenticity of the video Minallah said that everyone in Swat knows that the incident took place but unfortunately the NWFP government wants to divert the attention of the masses from the actual issue of harassment of women. She said that the facts and figures would be produced before the Supreme Court and everyone would come to know about the authenticity of the video.
“NWFP minister Mian Iftikhar directly named me while addressing a press conference yesterday while today the NWFP government has been apologising over directly blaming me”, said Samar Minallah adding: “I have got nothing from publicising this horrific video except putting my life in danger and if the government cannot provide me security then at least it should not divert the attention of the masses.”
She said that the dialect which the girl was speaking was purely of Swat as she herself has worked in Swat and any Pushtoon could recognise it. Samar said that Muslim Khan, the spokesman of Taliban in Swat, accepted that the incident took place and also told the media that the girl had an illicit relationship with her father-in-law. “If the incident did not take place then how come Muslim Khan came to know about the allegations levelled against the girl?”, said the human rights activist adding: “Muslim Khan said the actual punishment to be awarded to the girl was stoning to death but she was flogged.”
She said that a writer contributing to the BBC had confirmed that the incident was recent and from Swat.
She referred to a human rights activist of Swat who when contacted requested anonymity as publishing his name could put his life in danger. The human rights activist said that the video was so common in Swat that everyone was aware of it. The activist had said that he received the video from Taliban who were not happy with the incident as it was un-Islamic because the girl had not faced any trial. “Many Taliban were not happy with the incident and they themselves had made the video and circulated it”, said the human rights activist adding: “The girl’s younger brother was forced to hold her at gunpoint and the man lashing the girl also abused that boy which could be heard easily; the Taliban said to that boy, “Pimp, take her inside the house?”
The activist from Swat said that the incident took place in a remote area near village Serbanda in upper Swat and many Taliban say that it was an illegal activity as proper procedure of having four witnesses was not adopted. He was of the view that the video was recent and there were many other similar incidents which could not be highlighted by the media.
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briefs...
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ISSN 1563-9479 
