MANSEHRA: The Abbottabad Circuit Bench of the Peshawar High Court on Tuesday acquitted all six suspects in the killing of three brothers, who were allegedly involved in the release of some Kohistani women’s singing and dancing video on the social media in 2012.

Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Afsar Ali Shah announced the short verdict in the case.

The district and sessions judge of Kohistan had handed down death sentence to Mukhtasar and that of life imprisonment and payment of Rs1.2 million blood money to Mohammad Taus, Jintasser, Zafarul Haq, Shamsuddeen and Saeedur Rehman over the killing of three brothers, including Sher Walli, Rafiuddeen and Shah Faisal, in 2014.

The brother of the deceased, Afzal Kohistani, later moved the PHC Abbottabad Circuit Bench seeking increase in punishment of six convicts.

The accused also filed a petition with the court for acquittal insisting they were innocent.

The three brothers were killed in 2013 over the alleged involvement in the release on the social media of a video showing some Kohistani women dancing and singing in a wedding function in 2012.

The women seen in the video were allegedly killed by their respective families.

Afzal Kohistani told reporters outside the court that his family was denied justice as the suspected killers of his brothers were acquitted.

He said he would challenge the circuit bench’s verdict in the Supreme Court to ensure the protection of the life of other local women.

GIRL ASSAULTED: A policeman constable on Tuesday allegedly sexually assaulted a woman colleague’s minor daughter in upper Kohistan.

“We have arrested the suspect and will proceed against him under the law,” DIG Hazara division Saeed Wazir told reporters here.

The DIG said constable Ameerzada, the chief of the police control room in Dasu, allegedly took the minor daughter of a woman colleague, also a constable, to his room at the Police Lines and sexually assaulted her.

He said the girl was under treatment at the Dasu Civil Hospital, where her condition was reported to be out of danger.

The DIG said the medical examination confirmed the assault.

PRICES ESCALATE: The traders have complained the vegetable and fruit prices have escalated in the markets of Mansehra after the reopening of Torkham border.

Vegetable and fruit vendor Qasim Shah told Dawn on Tuesday that the price escalation had dropped sales and thus, causing him and other traders heavy losses.

He said the prices continued to increase in the wholesale markets as the transportation of a large quantity of vegetables and fruits to Afghanistan had been under way since the reopening of the Torkham border.

The vendor also said chicken was sold at Rs190 per kg in the district due to the large-scale transportation of poultry products to Afghanistan.

Buyer Munir Ahmad also complained about higher vegetable and fruit prices since the reopening of Torkham border and criticised the government for failing to control prices.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2017