September 18, 2008	Thursday	Ramazan 17, 1429

QUETTA, Sept 17: The chief of the Umrani tribe, Sardar Fateh Ali Umrani, accused human rights organisations and the media on Wednesday of using a recent incident of honour killing in Baba Kot area of Nasirabad district to defame the Baloch people.

Talking to journalists on phone, Sardar Umrani said he had headed a jirga which ordered the killing of two women of his tribe on charges of ‘karo-kari’.

He said such incidents were also taking place in Punjab, Sindh and other parts of the country and “the campaign launched by the media and some human rights organisations amounts to defaming Baloch tribesmen”. He said the rights organisations wanted to dub Baloch tribesmen as illiterate and barbarian.

He denied reports that five women had been buried alive.

“An allegation of karo-kari was proved against the two women of our tribe in the jirga and they were killed in accordance with tribal traditions,” he said, adding that one of the women was married.

Both of them were shot dead by their relatives and buried in accordance with religious values, he said, adding that no other woman had been killed.

He said that Balochistan police chief’s statement and the autopsy report prepared by the police surgeon had belied claims that the women had been buried alive.

The police surgeon had confirmed that both the women had been buried in a two and a half feet deep ditch in their own clothes.

Responding to a question, he said people usually did not lodge reports of such cases with the police to avoid post-mortem of women.

He said holding jirgas on disputes was a tradition of Baloch tribes and charges against the women had been proven.

Police have arrested four people in the case.

Human rights and civil society organisations insist that five women were buried alive but police have found only two bodies in the area.