MANSEHRA, May 29: A cleric charged with issuing death decree against four women and two brothers for dancing in a wedding function was freed on a local court’s orders a few hours after arrest on Tuesday.

The release came after Maulana Mohammad Javed Azad deposited the Rs50,000 worth of surety bond in Kohistan.

“I swear on the Holy Quran that I’ve issued no fatwa (decree) over the last four years nor have I seen any video of dancing women. I just heard about it. The charge of my holding a jirga to issue such a decree is baseless and meant to defame the ulema of Kohistan,” Mr Azad told reporters after release here.

The cleric was produced in a local court along with his brother and an accused, Mohammad Akhtar. The two were released after they deposited surety bond of Rs50,000 each.

District coordination officer of Kohistan Aqal Badshah and district police officer Abdul Majid Afridi told reporters that the matter about the decree issuance was concocted and was aimed at destroying the peaceful environment in the district.

The two said a police team had already been sent to Palis village to find the truth.

“No jirga was held to decide the fate of women and two brothers over the alleged wedding dance. It seems someone is conspiring against the people of Kohistan. We’ll foil such conspiracies,” said Mr Afridi.

MPA from Palis Mufti Mehmood Alam said he was himself mufti and no one could issue death sentence after witnessing such wedding dance video.

“We are in contact with the federal and provincial government to expose the faces behind the issue. I personally visited the area and found that no incident as was reported ever took place,” he said.

Meanwhile, a jirga of Islahi Committee of Ulema was held at Puttan with former MPA Maulana Dildar in the chair over the jirga decree case.

Participants condemned a ‘conspiracy’ hatched to defame clerics and destroy the image of Kohistan people.

After the jirga, Mr Dildar told reporters that clerics of Kohistan wouldn’t allow conspirators to destroy peaceful environment of Kohistan.