Teams constituted to arrest prime accused in Sharifan Bibi case

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) was told on Thursday that three special teams had been constituted to arrest the prime accused in the Sharifan Bibi case, who was allegedly paraded naked in the streets of her village in Dera Ismail Khan for her brother's alleged crime.

As per the progress report submitted to a division bench of the court comprising Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Muhammad Ayub, it was claimed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police that the regional police officer (RPO) of Dera Ismail Khan had constituted three special teams for nabbing the main accused, Sajawal.

The RPO also submitted a detailed progress report with regard to actions taken for arresting the main accused. It was reported that five cases were registered against the persons who were involved in providing shelter to the absconding accused in the case.

However, the bench again set three weeks deadline for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police to nab the principal accused in the case. It fixed March 20 for the next hearing. “Arrest the main accused before the next hearing or the Deputy Inspector General Police Headquarters should appear in person to explain position,” the bench directed the Additional Inspector General Police legal, Falak Naz, who was present in the court in connection with the case.

During hearing, Additional Advocate General, Qaiser Ali Shah, submitted before the bench that the police had submitted the progress report in the case. However, he sought more time for the arrest of the main accused.

The chief justice questioned the police officers as to why the force had not arrested the principal accused. On the previous hearing, the chief justice had asked the KP police officers to get assistance from other agencies if nabbing the main accused was difficult for them. On the other hand, Qazi Muhammad Anwar, counsel for Sharifan Bibi, and her relatives were claiming that one Basharat, the station house officer (SHO), had taken the mobile phone carrying the video of the incident in his custody in the early days and was not producing it in the court as he was trying to destroy the evidence in the case.

After the incident the PTI's Member National Assembly Dawar Kundi sent a letter to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief. He had alleged that KP Minister Ali Amin Gandapur was sheltering the culprits. The PTI chief Imran Khan had taken notice of the serious allegations against own minister and served a notice on his MNA.

The PHC had disposed of the writ petition filed by the victim girl with the direction to the IGP of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to ensure submission of progress and investigation report in the case after every 15 days to the Human Rights Cell.

About the video, the police stated in the investigation report that all the 10 mobile phone sets were checked at the FSL Peshawar but no such video clips were found. The crime was committed by the accused party to allegedly avenge the incident of alleged illicit relations between the petitioner's brother and a female relative of the accused.

In the petition, the 16-year old Sharifan Bibi has requested the court to direct the provincial government and the police chief to provide security to her and her family, recover her video from the possession of the accused persons as accused had threatened to post it on the internet of they did not withdraw the case.

In the case proper sections of law, including Anti-Terrorism Act, are yet to be added by the police against the accused in the FIR during investigation. As per the legal experts, it was a case of terrorism to parade the girl naked in the streets in presence of people. They wondered why the police had not charged the accused under terrorism law.