Jirga to kill anyone reporting honour killing cases to police
Daily Times, April 29, 2006
By Zahid Jan
DIR: Anyone reporting an honour killing case to the police or filing a case with the court will be killed by the jirga (tribal court) since the publicising of such cases has brought a bad name to the area, Malik Faiz Muhammad, a member of the Nihag-Wari jirga in Upper Dir, said on Friday.
The Nihag-Dara Wari jirga had issued a controversial verdict in favour of honour killing around 15 days ago, declaring it a permissible act.
A Wari police station official said that over 150 people had attended the jirga, but Malik Faiz told Daily Times that the jirga consisted of more than 4,000 people representing the entire area.
“We stick to our verdict that honour killing is permissible and those who commit it will not be liable to any punishment. We will also not allow the aggrieved party to report the case to the police or file the case before a court. We will kill those who will violate the jirga verdict,” he said.
Malik Faiz said that the jirga would investigate such cases and punish those found guilty on its own. He said that the jirga members were ready to sacrifice their lives to uphold their verdict.
Certain union council nazims also attended the jirga called by the Painda Khel tribe and endorsed the decision of the jirga.
The jirga also declared that no action would be taken against anyone killing a robber. Jirga participants said that they would defend any oppressed person taking shelter in the area, but pledged action against those sheltering aggressors.
The federal government had asked the provincial government to investigate the jirga’s verdict on honour killing.
Sajid Mohmand, Upper Dir senior superintendent of police (SSP), said that the government would not accept the jirga’s “illegal” verdict on honour killings, adding that all such cases would be registered and those found guilty would be punished according to the due process of law.
Honour killing claimed 1,015 lives in 2005
Daily Times, Friday, April 28, 2006
KARACHI: Fifty-eight people, both men and women, lost their lives in 2005 only because they had married on their own will. They were among 1015 people murdered in the name of honour in the same year, said a report issued by the Madadgaar Help Line database recently.
The report, based on news clippings from twenty-six newspapers of Urdu, English and Sindh languages, says that despite the enactment of a law to curb violence against women, cases of karo kari or honour killing are still going on unabated.
The report says that the data does not necessarily presents the real picture. According to an estimate, only 10 percent cases of honour killing are reported in the media.
The report says that more than 473 incidents of honour killing were reported from Sindh, 337 from Punjab, 129 from Balochistan and 76 from NWFP during 2005. Those killed included 563 married women, 75 unmarried women, 373 men and six children.
In 380 such cases the perpetrators were never nabbed. In most of the cases, the killers were close relatives of the victims. The report says that 146 married women were killed by real brothers, 240 by husbands, 60 by in laws, 11 by real sisters, two by stepsons, one by stepbrother, one by former husband, one by mother and 71 by other relatives. Whereas newspaper reports about unmarried women show that fathers were the perpetrators in 49 cases, paternal uncles in 33 cases, real brothers in 16 cases and real sister in one case.
Total 618 of the victims were killed on the charge of indulging in zina and 337 for allegedly maintaining illicit relations.
The report said that when attacked, 901 of the victims died on the spot while 5 received serious injuries. 91 of the victims sustained murderous attack. According to the report, in 17 cases victims were found dead but it could not be ascertained how they were killed. PPI