Plaintiff in Kohistan video case shot dead

ABBOTTABAD: Afzal Kohistani, who had highlighted the Kohistan video scam, was shot dead here on Wednesday, officials said.

Talking to The News, District Police officer (DPO) Abbottabad Abbas Majeed Marwat confirmed killing of Afzal Kohistani and one of the accused was arrested and a revolver recovered from him. The arrested accused was said to be relative of the slain person.

The accused told the police that he was chasing those who had attacked Afzal Kohistani. The police registered the case and started investigation. A mobile phone video shot in 2011 in the remote village of Sartai in Kohistan showed five girls clapping as two boys danced at a wedding. A third boy was filming the scene. The video spread among the villagers before it came to the attention of a local jirga.

Muhammad Afzal Kohistani, the brother of one of the boys in the video made the news public, alleging that the girls had been killed on May 30, 2012 on the orders of a cleric who led a 40-50 member tribal jirga. Officials in the area, however, had claimed that the murders did not take place and the girls were alive.

The Supreme Court that year took suo motu notice of the case when the allegations surfaced, and women's rights activist Farzana Bari was sent to Kohistan as part of a fact-finding delegation to verify whether the girls were alive or dead.