Authorities exhume of dead bodies of couple killed by Mohmand Jirga

Naimat Khan

KARACHI: Authorities on Wednesday conducted exhumation of the bodies of a Pashtun couple which was killed on the directives of “Mohmand Jirga” here in Ibrahim Haidery neighborhood of the city on Independence Day of the country last month.

Forensic experts MLA Samia Saeed, Dr Fateh Mirza and Dr Qarar Abbas conducted exhumation in the presence of a magistrate.

Dr Qarar Abbas told media that the bodies had marks on their legs, heads and shoulders due to electrocution.

According to a report a teenage boy Ghani Rehman and girl Bakht Taj were accused of violating the ‘code of honour’ and subsequently killed with electric shocks. The murders were executed by family members on the orders of a jirga of elders of the Mohmand tribe.

The girl was killed first after which father of Ghani was forced by Jirga head to kill his son and both bodies were buried in the dark of night here Ali Brohi Goth, a locality in the suburbs of Karachi that falls with the jurisdiction of the Ibrahim Hyderi police.

According to local people and police sources the incident happened on 14 August 2017.

According to a report, the girl, 15-year-old Bakht Taj, daughter of Hikmat Khan, had allegedly attempted to elope with 17-year-old Ghani Rehman, son of Muhammad Afzal. Both families belong to the Safi sub-clan of the Mohmand tribe and reside in Ali Brohi Goth.

Both families of the boy and girl agreed to knot the tie of eloping couple but when Jirga had, Sartaj Khan alias Shagalai – who is recently in Rawalpindi where police are conducted raids to arrest him, foiled the deal and and arrange a Jirga, in which he ordered the families to kill their children, all to save their and the tribe’s ‘honour’.

According to reports life of Taj’s life was taken first. Her father and uncle, Zar Khattab, made her consume a strong sedative and then tied the unconscious girl to a charpoy. She was then administered powerful electric shocks to end her life.

Taj was buried that night in secrecy by five tribesmen at the Maula Madad graveyard in Sherpao Colony. The boy’s father initially refused to kill his son but one of the jirga members threatened to have his family in his hometown harmed by Taliban militants if he failed to comply.

Law enforcers conducted raids and the case has been transferred to the Shah Latif police. SHO Aman Marwat said that four people, including Afzal and Hikmat, had been arrested so far while efforts were afoot to track down the main instigator, Sartaj Khan alias Shagalai. The officer said the victims’ bodies would be exhumed on September 13 for autopsies.