Teenaged girl stoned to death in Dadu

SUKKUR: A teenaged girl has been "stoned to death" in Dadu after she was declared as Kari by a Jirga. Police on Saturday apprehended the parents of the minor girl as well as two other accused facilitators after rumors surfaced that an 11-year-old girl was "stoned to death" in a remote village, Johi area of Dadu after she was declared as Kari by the Jirga.

According to police, the incident took place on the evening of November 21 in the Kirthar mountain range of Dadu district, which borders the Balochistan province where 11-year-old girl Gul Shama Rind was killed. After getting information about the incident, SSP Dadu Dr Farrukh Raza Malik sent a police team headed by DSP Pir Bux Chandio to Karo Kot village, where the killing was reported to have taken place. Wahi Pandhi police arrested Maulvi Mumtaz Laghari who performed the girl's funeral prayers in a village near Shahi Makan.

They also deployed officials at the girl's grave. "We are further verifying the facts but we have arrested the deceased girl's parents Ali Bakhash Rind and Laila, mother of the girl, and a Maulvi who led the funeral prayers, as well as another man who had facilitated her burial," said SSP Raza. All arrested suspects are being interrogated, he added.

The girl's murder case was registered on the complaint of ASI Ghulam Qadir Gopang. The FIR was registered with Section 302 and 201 and police are investigating the case from different aspects. IGP Sindh Kaleem Imam has also taken a strict notice of the incident of stoning the girl in Dadu and has sought all details related to the brutal incident from SSP Dadu. He directed that investigation be ensured and justice should be ensured. Quoting the deceased girl's parents, the SSP said that the girl had died "accidentally due to landsliding on the the mountain". The parents were living in an area called Shahi Makan.

"We need to verify the facts because there were various claims as to the nature of her death, including stoning carried out by unidentified persons," said SSP Farrukh Malik. DIG Naeem Sheikh claimed that an application would be filed in the concerned magistrate's court to seek remand of the suspects as well as permission for the body's exhumation. "After exhumation, an autopsy will be conducted which will determine the cause of her death," said DIG Shaikh. GDA leader Nusrat Sahar Abbasi told the media she was not aware of it. In 2019, 50 women and 28 men were killed over honor in the province, she added.

News Desk adds: Sindh Minister for Information, Archives and Labour Saeed Ghani has said that the Sindh government, after taking prompt notice of an alleged incident in which an 11-year-old girl was killed on the pretext of karo-kari in a village of Johi town of district Dadu, has directed the district police to investigate the incident comprehensively without leaving any stone unturned. He said this while addressing a press conference on Sunday. Saeed Ghani said that the Imam who led the funeral prayers of the girl as well as her father had been arrested by the police. The provincial minister for information said that so far no witness of the incident had been found by the police. He said that according to the statement of the parents of the girl, she died after being hit by a stone as she fell down from a mound.

Saeed Ghani said that albeit there was information about a Jirga held to decide the fate of the deceased girl but police had found no evidence about that so far. The provincial minister said that the body of the girl would be exhumed on the orders of the court. He said that the district police had already requested the sessions judge for the appointment of a medical officer and the relevant court staff in this regard. Saeed Ghani said that the family of the victim belonged to the mountainous area of Kirthar Range.

The provincial minister stated that the Sindh government would comprehensively investigate the incident. He said that Chairman Pakistan People’s Party had also taken notice of the incident and asked Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah to look into every detail of the incident.

Responding to a question, Saeed Ghani said that if ever Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf wanted a novel system of local government, it would have to pass legislation from the provincial assembly. The provincial minister for information said that the Sindh government had the right to decide about the form of local government system in the province. He said that the Sindh government didn’t behave with the lawmakers of the MQM in the same way in the Sindh Assembly, as the PTI did with the members of PML-N in Punjab. Saeed Ghani said that the federal government had not paid a single penny out of 162 billion it announced for Karachi long ago.

Responding to another question, the minister said that PPP had never supported the forced eviction of people from the their homes but whatever the police did in Chisti Nagar, it did it on the orders of the court which any government had to follow in letter and spirit.