Kohistan jirga: Doubts cast on the safety of ‘condemned’ women

Muhammad Sadaqat – Tribune – Wednesday, 13 June 2012 (originally published 10 Jun)

Human rights activists claim the other three women were in another village rendered inaccessible by bad weather. Image: FILE

KOHISTAN:Questions have been raised over the fate of five Kohistani women – even after social activists vouched for their safety – who were condemned to death by a local jirga after mobile phone footage emerged of them mingling with men and singing at a village wedding.

Human rights activists Riffat Butt, Farzana Bari, Fauzia Saeed and Shabina Ayaz claimed the other three women were in another village rendered inaccessible by bad weather.

“I met two women and they are alive. I was told three others are also alive. They are in their homes far away in mountainous areas. I could not go there,” rights activist Farzana Bari had said after her return from the region . . .

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