PESHAWAR: A 16-year old girl who was allegedly stripped and paraded naked in a village in Dera Ismail Khan district and her family have moved the Peshawar High Court (PHC) to seek protection against the accused and recovery of her video from them. The petition also sought progress in the investigation of the case. Sharifa Bibi has filed the writ petition through her mother Khursheed Bibi seeking court direction for the provincial government, secretary Home and Inspector General Police (IGP). Senior lawyer Qazi Muhammad Anwar is providing free legal assistance to the family in the case through a non-governmental organisation, In-Search of Justice. The court was also requested to direct the respondent police officials to ensure submission of weekly progress report in the court regarding the investigation so that the PHC can satisfy itself that justice is provided to the petitioner. The petitioner also requested the court to direct the police concerned to include one Rahmatullah in the FIR for making a video of her when she was being paraded naked. It asked the court to give directions to the police to recover the video from the accused so that it isn’t publicised and misused. The petitioner claimed that the culprits were pressuring her family to withdraw the FIR. She said she was threatened that the video would be made public if the FIR was not withdrawn. The petition noted that despite requests the police did not provide security to her and her family. She noted that the politicians visited her home to show sympathy for her with the aim of making political gains. The incident took place on October 27 when Sharifa Bibi was allegedly stripped and paraded naked publicly to humiliate her family. As per the latest information, nine persons were the accused in the case and eight of them have been arrested. The main culprit, Sajawal, is still at large. The police claimed that four of the accused had confessed to the crime while a special team had been dispatched to Karachi to arrest Sajawal. Salma Malik from Dera Ismail Khan, who is chief executive of In Search of Justice (ISJ), a welfare organisation, was the first to highlight the issue and seek justice for the victim. “As per my routine, I was fetching water from a nearby spring along with fellow villagers and on return about nine armed men seized me and started dragging me. Without knowing my crime, the men first tore my shirt and then removed my clothes forcibly. I was crying for help but no one came to my rescue,” Sharifa Bibi stated in the petition. Sharifa Bibi, who is an orphan, said she was paraded in the streets for two hours and then taken to a hujra and confined there. She said she was humiliated as her brother had gifted a cellphone to a girl and talked to her on the phone. She said the family of the girl was her family’s rival. “I was punished for the act that my brother had done almost two years ago,” she added. The petition recalled that she was walking in the street and was passing by the house of Sajawal and Sanaullah when the incident happened. She alleged that the accused including Sajawal, Sanaullah, Shahjahan, Nasir, Aslam, Gulistan and Rajzan forcibly took her to the house of Saidu, where using a scissor her Kameez-Shalwar were torn, dopatta was pulled and she was stripped naked. She said the accused including Rahmatullah paraded her in the village streets. She maintained that Rahmatullah, son of Saeedullah, made a video of the shameful incident. It said that as per the decision of Panchayat, whose members were Moni Khan, local Station House Officer Ashraf and Khalid Khan, petitioner paid Rs300,000 to the girl’s family for her brother’s crime to have contacted the girl on mobile phone.
