PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday directed the provincial inspector general of police (IGP) to submit a written reply to the requests made by a girl, who was allegedly paraded naked in her Dera Ismail Khan village last month, seeking protection from the suspected culprits and inclusion of the name of the man, who filmed the Oct 27 incident, in the FIR.

Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Syed Afsar Shah was assured by KP advocate general Lateef Yousafzai that he would submit the IGP’s written reply and would ask a senior police officer to appear before the bench today (Wednesday).

The bench issued the directions after preliminary hearing into the petition filed by the 16-year-old girl, who had prayed the court to direct the provincial government and provincial police chief to provide security to her and family.

Advocate general says senior police officer will appear in court today

She had also sought the court’s orders for the inspector general of police and DIG of the DI Khan range police to submit weekly report of the progress on investigation into the incident to ensure dispensation of justice to her.

The petitioner had further prayed the court to direct the IGP and DIG to include the name of the person, who is suspected of filming the incident, in the FIR and adding that offence in it.

She had also sought the court’s orders for the police to recover that video to prevent its misuse.

Former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association Qazi Mohammad Anwar appeared for the petitioner and said the Oct 27 incident, which had taken place in Garamat village, brought a bad name to the entire country and that the culprits didn’t deserve leniency.

He said that the immediate matter of concern for the girl’s family was that an accomplice of the suspected culprits had caught the incident on camera but the police had neither seized the footage nor had that man been named in the FIR.

The lawyer said his client was an orphan and belonged to a poor family.

The advocate general said on behalf of the provincial government, he assured the girl that full cooperation would be offered to her and her family in the case investigation and that justice would be done to them.

The girl’s brother, Sajid Khan, told Dawn outside the courtroom that around two years ago, the accused had blamed him for handing over a cellphone to a female member of their family and despite his denial on oath, the panchayat (jirga) had ordered him to pay a fine of Rs300,000 to them.

He added that despite the decision of the panchayat, the accused led by Sajawal had paraded his sister naked in the village.

Sajid said initially, the local police didn’t cooperate with his family members and even refused to register FIR but did it only after the local people protested.

The police have so far arrested eight of the nine people named in the FIR as suspects. However, the prime suspect, Sajawal, has been absconding.

Qazi Anwar told reporters that before registering FIR of the incident, the local police had booked the girl’s brother and uncle to pressure the family not to pursue the case.

In the petition, the girl alleged that the local police supported suspects by twisting facts in the FIR.

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2017