Senate body recommends forming JIT on Afzal Kohistani's murder

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights has recommended forming a joint investigation team (JIT) on Afzal Kohistani’s murder, as well as provision of security to his family, ARY News reported Monday.

Afzal, who had revealed the murder of five women appearing in a controversial video from shot in Kohistan six years ago, was killed on March 6 near Gami Addah area of Abbottabad.

The video showed five women clapping and singing as two men – brother and cousin of Afzal – danced on the tune.

All the persons appearing in the video were killed in days and years to come after a jirga (tribal court) decided that the video had brought ‘dishonour’ to the tribe.

Senator Jahanzeb Jamaldeni, who chaired the meeting, said that round-the-clock security should be provided to Afzal’s family. The brother and uncle of Afzal had also appeared before the committee.

Read: Afzal Kohistani, man who publicised killings in Kohistan video scandal, murdered

Deputy Inspector General of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police said parliament members should also assist the police in this case. He said he was neither giving patronage to any dishonest officer nor he would do ever.

Human rights activist Farzana Bari, who was appointed by the Supreme Court at that time to visit the area and ascertain the facts, briefed the committee that Afzal Kohistani had raised the issue of girls’ murder in 2012 and the then Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry had taken suo motu notice on the issue.

‘Man named Shamsuddin had killed three girls in 2012 and he was also murdered just three years ago’, the committee was told.

The meeting was told that police too, after the gap of seven years, accepted that the girls were murdered.

The Senate body also directed authorities to provide security to social activist Farzana Bari.

Afzal, in 2012, had claimed on record that the five girls belonging to Palas valley in Kohistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, were murdered after a jirga (tribal court) had decided that the girls in question had violated tribal norms.

Though it has yet not been established that these people were killed, circumstantial evidence suggests they were, because none of the girls has been produced in the Supreme Court of Pakistan despite issuance of several production orders by the apex court.

The two men appearing in the video, brothers to Afzal, along with another, his cousin, were murdered on January 3, 2013 after he had requested the Supreme Court to reopen the case.

It was learnt that Afzal had been receiving death threats for a long time, however, despite his applications to DIG Hazara division and IGP Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he wasn’t provided security.