Police claim arresting accused in Afzal Kohistani murder case

ABBOTTABAD: The police have arrested an accused in the murder case of Afzal Kohistani, the man involved in exposing the honour killing case in Kohistan where eight persons including five women were killed in 2011, sources said on Thursday.

The body of Afzal Kohistani was handed over to his family members after post-mortem. The Abbottabad Police registered the case after arresting the accused Faizur Rehman along with a 30-bore pistol, two magazines and 10 bullets.

Faizur Rehman, said to be the nephew of Afzal Kohistani, was chased by the traffic constable Adil when he was trying to escape.

Faizur Rehman claimed that he used the pistol of Afzal Kohistani in self-defence, but remained unhurt in the Suzuki van in which Afzal Kohistani was killed. All the three injured passers-by were taken to the Ayub Medical Complex Hospital. They were identified as Kaleemullah and Said Karam, both hailing from Bajaur and Sabir Hussain from Sheikhul Bandi village in Abbottabad.

All the injured were stated to be out of danger. A large number of people from Kohistan gathered outside the police station. The police investigation team, headed by SP investigation Aziz Afridi, recorded the statement of accused Faizur Rehman, the three injured and a few eyewitnesses.

None of the witnesses had seen or pointed out presence of any other accused at the scene except Faizur Rehman. The incident took place at around 8pm on Wednesday in the thickly populated area on Mansehra Road when Afzal Kohistani was reportedly travelling in a Suzuki van. According to the police sources, the eyewitnesses and one of the injured have accused Faizur Rehman in the case.

Abbottabad District Police Officer Abbas Majeed Marwat, while briefing media, stated that the investigation was being carried out by SP Investigation Aziz Afridi under the control of senior police officers including him and SP Headquarters Sonia Shamroz.

Replying to a question, he said that they have recovered a 30-bore pistol, magazines and bullets from the accused Faizur Rehman and were now trying to get forensic report at the earliest. He stated that a video on the social media about Afzal Kohistani was old and has nothing to do with the case.

The Kohistan video scandal hit headlines in 2012 when eight boys and girls were killed by members of their tribe after a mobile phone video concerning a wedding ceremony in a remote village in Kohistan emerged on the social media. The video showed five women singing and clapping as some male family members were shown dancing.

In the eyes of the locals, the youngsters dancing in the video had violated tribal norms and brought dishonour upon them. After the video went viral on the social media, a jirga was held by the girls' tribe, which decreed the killing of the boys and girls under the local 'riwaj'.

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

Former chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry had taken suo motu notice of the case on June 7, 2012 and constituted a fact-finding mission on July 17 the same year to investigate the case.

The commission went to Kohistan and investigated the matter, producing a report on July 20, 2017 which stated that the girls were alive. Human rights activist Farzana Bari, also part of the commission, had expressed doubts at the time as she felt the girls produced before the commission were not the same and some other burqa-clad and veiled girls were, in fact, presented to them.