Victim of honour: Jirga verdict fails to save Torghar woman
MANSEHRA: A woman has been killed in Torghar in the name of honour although a jirga had granted the mother of four a pardon, according to the residents of the area.
“It seems the recent change in the status of the area, from “tribal” to “settled” has eroded the influence the centuries-old jirga system held in Torghar. In the past it would have been unthinkable to go against the verdict of a jirga,” said one resident.
Sources said that the woman had eloped with a stranger from Basikhel Kanan Syedain to Rawalpindi. However, she was brought back on July 26 to Torghar. A local jirga provided indemnity to the woman, a mother of four, but her father-in-law shot her dead, sources said.
District Coordination Officer Fareed Khan, when contacted, said that law would take its due course and the alleged killer would be taken to task.
President Asif Ali Zardari had changed the tribal status of Torghar into a settled district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through a presidential notification earlier this year.
Meanwhile, two persons were killed in separate incidents in Torgar on Friday.
Police said that Sajizada and his accomplices shot dead Syed Zada in Nusratkhel area over an old enmity. The accused managed to escape, they added.
In another incident, Zaibullah drowned in Indus River near Judbah Kozkallay. Local people rushed to the scent to rescue Zaibullah but failed and later on his body was fished out.
ELECTRICITY: The federal government provided electricity to five villages of Balakot with an estimated cost of Rs15 million.
Former district nazim Sardar Mohammad Yousuf inaugurated the power supply scheme at Bagh Bonja area on Friday as his son Sardar Shahjahan Yousuf, a minister of state, could not attend the ceremony because of his official engagements in Islamabad.
Speaking on the occasion, Sardar Yousuf and former MPA Syed Mazhar Ali Qasim said that Pakistan Muslim League-Q joined hands with the ruling party for the welfare of masses. “The PML-Q wants to steer the country out of the current crisis,” they claimed.
They said that people of Balakot had been suffering since the October 8, 2005 earthquake bur now their issues would be addressed.
Source: Dawn
Date:7/30/2011
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