May 6, 2002	Monday	Safar 22, 1423

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KOHAT, May 5: The woman sentenced to death by stoning at a public place by a court of law under the Hudood Ordinance was tortured by her in-laws for four days and kept in confinement in a small room without food, local office-bearers of the Aurat Foundation (AF) told Dawn.

Zafran Bibi was tortured by her father-in-law and brother-in-law to nominate an innocent man in the FIR in order to blackmail him and extort money from him, they said while quoting an inquiry report prepared by the Aurat Foundation and some foreign journalists in the case.

The AF officials also quoted reports of human rights organizations in the case, saying that the majority of the people of Zafran Bibi’s native village Chorlaki, some 35km from here, submitted that the father-in-law of the victim had earlier blackmailed three people on different occasions in connivance with the police to mint money.

They revealed that when his own son repeatedly raped his daughter-in-law, he again used the same tactic and falsely implicated one Akmal in the case.

They, while quoting Akmal, who was acquitted of the charge by a court of law, said that Zafran’s father-in-law owed Rs10,000 to Akmal, but when he demanded his money back, Zafran’s in-laws staged this drama.

When Zafran Bibi recorded her statement in the court and accused her brother-in-law to be the father of the baby born out of wedlock, she herself became the accused, whereas both the persons nominated in the FIR and the court statement were set free.