Boy, girl killed for honour in Kohistan

KOHISTAN: A young boy and girl were killed by firing and axe attacks in a remote area of Barparo in Kohistan’s northern district of Kolai Palas, which is the third incident of this kind in the past three months.

According to the FIR registered on the complaint of SHO Muhammad Javed Khan of police station Koz Paro, the police received information from police officer Mujeeb-ur-Rehman that a woman and a man were killed in the area of Chipargai in Barparo.

According to the FIR, when the police reached the scene of the crime after receiving the information, they found two bodies lying in a pool of blood.

The police said that according to the information, the boy and girl were residents of Chipargai. The police said in the FIR that ‘according to the initial information, the brother and father of the deceased woman killed both of them by firing and this seems to be a case of honour killing. The culprits fled after committing the crime, police said.

The police also included the other brother of the girl in the FIR and said that both killings were done on his advice.

The police have started an investigation against the accused under sections 302, 311 and 109 of the PPC.

Muhammad Farooq (not his real name), who belongs to the village of Sharakot, the hometown of the slain boy, said that ‘the boy’s body was chopped into pieces after firing.’

He said that ‘there is a strict prohibition of these matters in Kohistan and if anyone has contact with someone’s sister or daughter, they are called ‘thief’ in the local language.

“They are not forgiven in any case and after the jirga, both are killed by both families,” he said.

Sub-divisional police officer DSP Muhammad Riaz told BBC Urdu that after the incident, SHO Koz Paro Javed along with police parties are present in the relevant area and are trying to arrest the culprits.

He said that “I am going to the scene of the crime myself where the network does not work and I am not in contact with the SHO.”

Past incidents in Kohistan

A girl was killed in Kolai Palas last year on November 27 or the order of a jirga after her photoshopped pictures went viral on social media. After which, the jirga members and the culprits were arrested and the case is currently under trial.

Similarly, in October 2023, a girl was also supposed to be killed for allegedly having contact with a boy, but the girl escaped and approached the police. Later, the court sent her to a shelter home.

Kohistan is a conservative and remote area where the literacy rate is 24 per cent and women’s education is only 5 per cent.

The Kohistan video scandal that surfaced in 2012 was also an incident that occurred in this area, where a video of boys dancing and girls clapping went viral, after which a jirga was convened and the jirga ordered to kill the two brothers of Afzal Kohistani, who was later himself killed in Abbottabad in the same case.

Afzal Kohistani was killed after sharing the incident with the media and taking it to the court, and his three brothers were also killed, while the two brothers who appeared in the video are still living in hiding, and the four girls who appeared in the video were also been killed.