2012 Kohistan video case: Difference between revisions
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| venue = Peach Bela, Palas Valley<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/777246|title=Murders in Paradise|first=Rina Saeed|last=Khan|date=8 January 2013|website=DAWN.COM}}</ref> |
| venue = Peach Bela, Palas Valley<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/777246|title=Murders in Paradise|first=Rina Saeed|last=Khan|date=8 January 2013|website=DAWN.COM}}</ref> |
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| location = Kohistan, Pakistan |
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The '''Kohistan video case''' took place in the spring of 2012 in [[Palas Valley]], [[Kohistan District, Pakistan|Kohistan]] and involved the [[honor killing]] of up to five girls after a video of them emerged on the internet. The video featured a boy dancing while four girls clapped and sang along. A further girl was also allegedly in attendance but wasn't filmed.<ref name="BBC 5 Sept" /> |
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It is claimed that, when the footage appeared in the public domain, a [[jirga]] was held where it was decided that the participants, as well as the boy who filmed the video, should be killed. Afzal Kohistani, elder brother of the two boys involved in the video, went against local tradition and brought the case to national attention; first asking for protection for the participants and then claiming that the girls in the video had been murdered.<ref name="Hashim AJ">{{cite news |last1=Hashim |first1=Asad |title=How a Pakistani whistle-blower was killed for 'honour' |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/pakistani-whistle-blower-killed-honour-190325122640231.html |work=www.aljazeera.com |date=26 Mar 2019}}</ref> |
It is claimed that, when the footage appeared in the public domain, a [[jirga]] was held where it was decided that the participants, as well as the boy who filmed the video, should be killed. Afzal Kohistani, elder brother of the two boys involved in the video, went against local tribal tradition and brought the case to national attention; first asking for protection for the participants and then claiming that the girls in the video had been murdered.<ref name="Hashim AJ">{{cite news |last1=Hashim |first1=Asad |title=How a Pakistani whistle-blower was killed for 'honour' |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/pakistani-whistle-blower-killed-honour-190325122640231.html |work=www.aljazeera.com |date=26 Mar 2019}}</ref> Kohistani campaigned for seven years to keep the case in the public eye until he was murdered himself in March 2019. |
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| ⚫ | In September 2019, three men were convicted of murdering three of the girls from the video and were sentenced to life imprisonment. The status of the fourth and fifth girl remain unconfirmed.<ref name="BBC 5 Sept">{{cite news |title=Three given life in 'honour killings' blood feud |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-49592540 |work=BBC News |date=5 September 2019}}</ref> |
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Kohistani campaigned for seven years to keep the case in the public eye - during which time three of his elder brothers were murdered and his home was firebombed - ultimately he was murdered himself in March 2019. |
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| ⚫ | In September 2019, three men were |
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==Events== |
==Events== |
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Revision as of 08:16, 14 September 2020
 Screencap of the Kohistan video showing; Bazeegha, Sereen Jan, Begum Jan and Amina | |
| Date | 2012 |
|---|---|
| Venue | Peach Bela, Palas Valley[1] |
| Location | Kohistan, Pakistan |
| Type | Honour killing |
| First reporter | Afzal Kohistani |
The Kohistan video case took place in the spring of 2012 in Palas Valley, Kohistan and involved the honor killing of up to five girls after a video of them emerged on the internet. The video featured a boy dancing while four girls clapped and sang along. A further girl was also allegedly in attendance but wasn't filmed.[2]
It is claimed that, when the footage appeared in the public domain, a jirga was held where it was decided that the participants, as well as the boy who filmed the video, should be killed. Afzal Kohistani, elder brother of the two boys involved in the video, went against local tribal tradition and brought the case to national attention; first asking for protection for the participants and then claiming that the girls in the video had been murdered.[3] Kohistani campaigned for seven years to keep the case in the public eye until he was murdered himself in March 2019.
In September 2019, three men were convicted of murdering three of the girls from the video and were sentenced to life imprisonment. The status of the fourth and fifth girl remain unconfirmed.[2]
Events
The video
Four girls - Bazeegha, Sereen Jan, Begum Jan and Amina - are seen clapping and singing; a fifth girl, Shaheen, is also in attendance but doesn't appear in the video. In a separate shot, a man is seen dancing, while a second man records both him and the girls.[2] The video was reportedly filmed at a wedding celebration in the remote, and strictly conservative, Kohistan region, where cultural traditions are enforced by Jirgas. In 2012, the video was leaked online and, as the girls and men were from different tribes, mixing in that environment was forbidden. A jirga was convened where it was decided that the participants should be killed.[3]
Investigations and legal rulings
The incident reached the national media in June 2012, when Muhammad Afzal Kohistani, the brother of one of the boys in the video, alleged that the girls had all been killed on the orders of the Azadkhel tribe jirga. Officials from the area denied that this had taken place and claimied that the girls were alive. The case was disposed of after rights activists and government officials made two trips to the village to meet the girls, as ordered by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and initially confirmed that at least four of the girls were alive.[4] [5][6] Dr Farzana Bari, a woman's rights activist who made both trips to meet the girls, did not agree with the conclusions reached and lodged her dissent.[6]
In response to the closure of the case, Afzal Kohistani asserted that imposters had been presented to the investigation team and that the real girls were dead.[4] He filed an application to reopen the case, as a result of which three of his brothers were shot dead[7] in early January 2013. Four suspects were arrested for the triple murder.[8]
On 8 February 2014, a former member of the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from Kohistan, publicly claimed that the four girls in the video had been murdered and this prompted Afzal Kohistani to file another petition for the girls to be produced in court. After this was rejected, he took it to the Supreme Court where, in November 2016, another commission was ordered.[6] The defence lawyer argued that the girls couldn't be brought before the commission because of the local restrictions making it a matter of honour and shame. That argument was rejected by Justice Ejaz Afzal and Sessions judge, Shoaib Khan, and a female police officer were dispatched to meet the girls. Four girls duly appeared before them and inconsistences were noted around the age of the girls produced and those who appeared in the video five years prior.[6]
The report the commission submitted to the Supreme Court expressed fear that the five girls might not be alive as the girls presented in front of them did not match the description of the girls in the video. It mentioned, "The view taken and expressed... is the outcome of human observations, not free from error, maybe right or wrong, and can lead to an inference that either the girls are not alive or they have fled away and gone into missing being well aware of [the] consequences of traditional approach of their elders in such case."[9]
Farzana Bari made a fresh statement to the court reiterating her earlier concerns that the girls seen in the video had been killed, and the ones brought before the commission were different girls. She stated: "Photos of the girls taken during the commission session were given to a Reuters' journalist, Katharine Houreld, who got the matching done through a renowned independent British agency 'Digital Barriers'. It was found in the said report that the photos of the girls, who were made to appear before the commission, did not match the images of the girls appearing in the said video."[10]
In August 2018, on the order of the Supreme Court, the Kohistan police registered a first information report under Section 364 of the Pakistan Penal Code for the alleged honour killing of the five women seen in the video. In December 2018, the investigation established that two out of five victims were reportedly alive, as claimed by the four suspects arrested in November that year,[11] and that three of the girls - Siran Jan, Begum Jan and Bazeegha - had, indeed, been killed.[6]
Afzal Kohistani
Afzal Kohistani was a Salehkhel tribesman from the Kolai-Palas District, he was one of eight children. The family lived comfortably and were well respected within the village community. At various times, Afzal ran a tailoring shop, clerked for a lawyer and traded bee honey, he studied law in his free time. In 2010, he was living in Mansehra City with his wife and two of his younger brothers, Bin Yasir and Gul Nazar.
Around this time Yasir and Nazar returned to the family village of Gadaar, which is where the video was later filmed. When the video went viral Yasir and Nazar were arrested, two of their brothers and other families from the Salehkhel tribe left Gaddar and moved to Allai, where they'd been offered protection from the Azadkhel tribe, to whom the girls in the video belonged.
As opposed to following the tribal tradition, Afzal tried to prevent the sentence of the jirga from being carried out. When that failed he repeatedly raised litigation in order to prove that the murders had taken place.[6]
As a result, three of Afzal's brothers, who stayed behind in Gadaar, were murdered in January 2013[12] and Afzal's house was firebombed.[2] In March 2019, he was shot dead in Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.[13][14]
Convictions
In September 2019, the father of Bazeegha, the father of Sereen Jan and the brother of Begum Jan, were convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Five other men were acquitted.[15][2]
See also
References
- ^ Khan, Rina Saeed (8 January 2013). "Murders in Paradise". DAWN.COM.
- ^ a b c d e "Three given life in 'honour killings' blood feud". BBC News. 5 September 2019.
- ^ a b Hashim, Asad (26 Mar 2019). "How a Pakistani whistle-blower was killed for 'honour'". www.aljazeera.com.
- ^ a b "Four Kohistan women alive, says Farzana Bari". DAWN.COM. 7 June 2012.
- ^ "Three sentenced in infamous Kohistan wedding video case". The Express Tribune. 5 September 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f Dastageer, Ghulam (4 June 2019). "The bloodied aftermath of a viral video". Herald Magazine.
- ^ Bhatti, Haseeb (2 January 2019). "Girls in 2011 Kohistan video were killed, Supreme Court told". DAWN.COM.
- ^ Amjad Iqbal; Nisar Ahmad Khan (8 January 2013). "Four held in Kohistan video murder case". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
- ^ "Kohistan video girls may be dead, probe body tells SC". Retrieved 12 October 2019.
- ^ Dawn.com, Naveed Siddiqui (21 October 2016). "Kohistan video case: Girls declared alive by SC had actually been killed, says Bari". DAWN.COM.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ Correspondent, The Newspaper's (4 December 2018). "Police claim two of Kohistan honour killing victims alive". DAWN.COM.
- ^ "Kohistan video case: Relatives of three slain brothers stage protest". The Express Tribune. 8 January 2013.
- ^ "Anger over 'honour killing' activist murder". BBC. 8 March 2019.
- ^ "'Honour killing' whistleblower shot dead". BBC News. 7 March 2019.
- ^ "3 men sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012 Kohistan video scandal case". DAWN.COM. 5 September 2019.
External links
- Honor Killings Unveiled: The Kohistan Video Scandal Java Films 2016
- "The Kohistan Story: Killing for Honor". Vice Media. 2016.
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