Taslim Solangi’s mother not satisfied with MNA’s probe
KARACHI: Taslim SolangiÂ’s mother Zikra Solangi is not satisfied with investigations carried out by MNA Nafisa Shah into Taslim’s murder.
Zikra Solangi was talking to The News on Saturday. She alleged that Shah had concealed many facts in her enquiry and did not reveal that Taslim was thrown before dogs before being shot dead. She said that Shah also did not reveal the true facts about the jirga that was conducted by Union Council (UC) Nazim Salim Solangi.
She said, however, that she was satisfied with investigations made by Sanaullah Abbasi, Deputy Inspector General Police (Operations), Hyderabad Range. She further said that she would accompany him from Hyderabad to Khairpur Mirus on Tuesday where the DIG would conduct a meeting.
Abbasi was appointed the enquiry officer for the Taslim Solangi case on December 23 by President Asif Ali Zardari. Taslim was allegedly mauled by dogs and then shot dead by her in-laws on the pretext of karo-kari or honour killing.
She was 17 years old. The brutal murder took place in the first week of March 2008.
Taslim was initially pressured by her uncle to convince her parents to hand over their agricultural land to him. When she refused, the uncle and his accomplices brought in her father and made him watch as the girl was allegedly mauled by dogs and then shot dead.
The incident led to a furore in the media. Ironically enough, however, a jirga was convened in May, in which Taslim was posthumously declared kari (involved in an illicit relationship). The murderers were vindicated and a local man was forced to confess as being Taslim’s illicit lover. He was made to pay Rs400, 000 as compensation.
The majority of the more barbaric human rights violations making their way out of Pakistan can be traced to jirgas court-like gatherings of tribal men. These have been declared illegal by the superior courts in Pakistan. Despite this, over 4,000 people, two-thirds of them women have reportedly died in jirga-ordered murders over the last six years. Many of those involved in implementing jirgas hold, or will likely go on to hold, places in Pakistan’s parliament, observed the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC).
The legal rights of the relatives of murder victims must be recognized and acted on. This includes the right to an investigation and trial. Under Article 2 of the ICCPR (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights), which Pakistan has signed, the state is obliged to protect rights and provide remedy for victims of rights violations.
Those who carry out extra-judicial violence must be forced to see that it will no longer be tolerated. Circumstances must be created which will convince the victims that there are viable means to assert their rights within a framework of justice, the AHRC said.
Source: The News
Date:1/12/2009
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