Pakistan to probe girl's flogging
Pakistan's
top judge has called for a court hearing into the public flogging of a teenage
girl, which was captured on video and shown around the world.
Chief
Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has ordered police and government officials from the
north-western Swat Valley to bring the girl to court next week.
The film
shows apparent Taleban members holding her down and hitting her with a strap as
she cries out in pain.
Prime
Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has condemned the incident as "shameful".
Local
sources said the girl had been accused of illicit relations with a man and that
the flogging took place about a month and a half ago.
Since
then, the provincial government in the North West Frontier Province agreed to
implement Sharia law as part of a peace deal with militants there.
A press
release quoted Chief Justice Chaudhry - who was only recently restored to
office - as saying the action was a cruel violation of fundamental rights that
gave Pakistan a bad name.
Forced
to marry
The
language in the video is of the Swati dialect of Pashto, says the BBC's Abdul
Hai Kakar.
The
burka-clad woman is heard crying throughout the two-minute flogging and at one
point swears on her father that she will not do it again.
Relatives
of the man involved in the incident told the BBC he had gone to the house of
the girl in the village of Kala Kalay to do repairs as an electrician, but
militants accused him of having a relationship with her.
They
dragged him from the house and flogged him before punishing the girl, his
relatives said.
The
Taleban made the girl's brother hold her down during the flogging, they said.
After
the incident, the Taleban forced the couple to marry and instructed the man not
to divorce his wife. His relatives say he has been left mentally scarred.
The
incident happened weeks before the new Sharia courts began to be introduced in
Swat.
Militants
'still in control'
Prime
Minister Gilani said he strongly condemned the "shameful" incident in
a statement issued by his office.
Mr
Gilani said it was contrary to Islamic principles, which teach Muslims to treat
women politely and gently.
He said
the government believed in the rights of women and would continue to take every
measure to protect their rights.
The
Sharia system was agreed in Swat to try to stop the Taleban from imposing their
harsh brand of justice, the BBC's Islamabad correspondent Barbara Plett says.
Previously
they had beheaded dissidents and killed women accused of un-Islamic behaviour.
That
seems to have significantly decreased after the Taleban leader officially
accepted the Islamic courts.
However,
it is not clear whether this new justice system will replace Taleban rule in
practice.
The
courts seem to be operating with some effect in Swat's main city of Mingora but
not in outlying rural areas.
There
witnesses say the militants continue to exercise control, if not as brutally as
before.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7980899.stm
Published: 2009/04/03 18:50:17 GMT
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