Joint efforts pledged to curb honour killings in Kohistan

MANSEHRA: Lower Kohistan district ammonisation, police, Ulema and civil society activists on Thursday announced to make efforts for prevention of honour killings.

“I am thankful to Ulema who decreed that killing of men and women for honour is forbidden in Islam and those committing such an offense are liable to be punished under the relevant laws,” District Police Officer Suleman Khan told a grand jirga in Pattan, the district headquarters of Lower Kohistan. The DPO said that on the order of inspector general of police Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and DIG Hazara Qazi Jamilur Rehman, a campaign was underway in Upper Kohistan, Kolai-Palas (erstwhile Kohistan) and Lower Kohistan to end honour-related killings of men and women.

Deputy Commissioner Khalid Khan said that the district administration would also extend its support to the police, Ulema and civil society in bringing the honour killings to an end. The district vice-president of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Abdul Hakeem, said that though there was a high ratio of honour killings in Kohistan districts, they had witnessed a drastic decrease because of the effective role played by police since Lower Kohistan was given the status of a district in 2013.

The religious scholars, including Maulana Kareemdad, Maulana Ahmad Ali, Mufti Raheemdad, and Kifaytullah, said that one cannot hold a man or woman or a couple liable to be punished under adultery offense until four eyewitnesses. “If someone had committed adultery, he or she can’t be killed by the family or anyone else, but instead he or she would be punished under the Shariah law by the government and according to the Islamic injunctions, the punishment for such an offense is different of a married man or woman as compared to an unmarried man or woman,” said Maulana Kareemdad.