Kohistan video not original, girls are alive: Iftikhar

Posted on 11 months ago

Asks media to confirm reports before going public
Ali Sheikh
PESHAWAR: Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain has asked to avoid making sensitive news public unless and until they get the complete information and confirmation of the event.
He was briefing media at Civil Officers Mess on Thursday, regarding the new twist in the Kohistan video case.
A team comprising of Commissioner Hazara, DCO, DPO and three women members of social organizations were directed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan to go to Kohistan and find out about the girls who were stated to be killed.
A jirga had sentence five women and two men to death after they were seen sitting together in a mobile video singing and dancing during a marriage party.
Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that the cleric who was stated to have given the decree of killing the girls and the boys also accompanied the team who visited Kohistan on Thursday. He said the cleric categorically denied of issuing any such decree. He said four of the female members of the team Shamina Butt, Farzana Bari, Fauzia Saeed and Shamina Hayat met two of the five girls and they had also made a video after taking permission from the girls to show it to SC as a proof of the girls being alive. Due to the bad weather the team had to come back to Islamabad and could not meet the other three girls, Mian Iftikhar said.
The minister said the two girls whom the team met on Thursday were Shereen and Robina.
The spokesman of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government further said that he had personally talked to four of the persons who give statements that the girls were alive and no one had killed them. "We are saying this from the day first that the girls are alive and the media was demanding proof from us but it was not asking for any proof from those who said that the girls are killed," Mian Ifrikhar said.
Replying to a question the Information Minister said that he had serious reservations about the video being original. "The video is fake and a drama as the video never shows the girls and boys together but shows their faces separately," Mian Iftikhar added.
He said that it was now up to the Supreme Court to decide about the future of those involved in this case. However, he added, the provincial government would take stern action against those who were involved in creating all this scenario after the case was decided by the court.

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