 DIR: The families of two-honour killing victims were forced by an illegal jirga, comprising of local khans and maliks, to agree to take no action against the killer and to keep the case quiet, sources have revealed. The murderer told the jirga that he would kill another four of five members from each respective family if they refused to strike a deal with him and reported the killings.
| “Bakht Rawan killed his cousin Badshah Zada on July 16 when he suspected him of having illicit relations with his wife. Rawan then killed his wife, who was also his cousin and mother of their one-month old baby.” |
Bakht Rawan killed his cousin Badshah Zada on July 16 when he suspected him of having illicit relations with his wife. Rawan then killed his wife, who was also his cousin and mother of their one-month old baby. Salih Rehman, the brother of Zada, had last month charged local khans and maliks with forcing him and his family to accept the deal put forward by Rawan. The jirga then warned the fathers and brothers of both victims that more of their family members would be killed if they rejected the deal. The jirga then used force to secure the thumbprint of each father on a document that declared them willing to accept reconciliation with Rawan. The jirga refused to give either details of the document or its copy to the aggrieved parties. But it did warn them that they would incur a Rs 0.5 million fine if they tried to bring Rawan to justice.
| “The document declaring the reconciliation is fake; our thumbprints were taken by force...” |
However, Rawan had himself already surrendered to the police in the hope that he would be released once the jirga secured reconciliation with all parties. “We did not agree to any reconciliation which pardons the killer, we were forced to do it as we are weak and powerless. The document declaring the reconciliation is fake; our thumbprints were taken by force and thus we do not accept the document,” said Qabil, the father of Zada, and Mubarak Jan, the father of the woman. |