PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday asked a Dera Ismail Khan teenage girl, who claimed she was paraded naked last year, to file application to include the Anti-Terrorism Act’s provisions in the case.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Ijaz Anwar Khan issued the directions after Qazi Mohammad Anwar, lawyer for the girl, said the police had promised the inclusion of the ATA’s provision in the stripping incident’s FIR but afterward, the trial was conducted by a sessions judge instead of an anti-terrorism court.

He requested the court to order the inclusion of the ATA’s provisions in the case to ensure the transfer of the case to an ATC.

Girl’s lawyer accuses police of violating commitment on hearing by ATC

The bench directed the lawyer to file an application in that respect and observed that it would seek a reply from the government if the ATA’s provisions could be included in the FIR at the moment when trial had been begun by the sessions court.

Additional advocate general Waqar Ahmad Khan suggested to the counsel to file an application with the trial court to transfer the case to the ATC.

However, Qazi Anwar said he would file the application with the high court.

Kulachi deputy superintendent of police Khalid Usman and investigation officer Sagheer Shah submitted their progress report.

The police officials claimed that of the nine accused persons, eight had already been arrested and they had been raiding different locations for arresting the absconding accused, Sajawal, who was the mastermind of the crime.

They said during the last 20 days, they had conducted raids at 16 spots but the absconder couldn’t be apprehended.

The police said the Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) of the accused had already been blocked by the Nadra, while his name had been placed on the Exit Control List.

The officials said the land measuring 138 kanals in the name of the absconder had also been attached to the government.

They added that the pension amount of the accused was frozen.

On Nov 22, a high court bench headed by the chief justice had disposed of a petition filed by the alleged victim of stripping, with the direction to the IGP to submit progress report of the investigation to the PHC’s Human Rights Cell director for the perusal of the chief justice.

In the petition, the girl had made several prayers to the court seeking protection, recovery of film of the incident allegedly made by a local resident, and the arrest of prime suspect Sajawal.

During the Thursday hearing, the police officials said the investigation hadn’t so far proved the allegations of the girl and her family that the incident was recorded on cellphone by local resident Rehmatullah, and that no such video was recovered from the accused.

The bench fixed May 15 for the next hearing into the case asking the police to step up efforts to arrest the absconder, Sajawal.

The girl had claimed that around two years ago, the prime suspect had blamed her brother for handing over a cellphone to a female member of their family and despite his denial on oath, the panchayat (jirga)had ordered her brother to pay a fine of Rs300,000 to them.

She added that despite the decision of the panchayat, the accused led by Sajawal had paraded her naked in the village on Oct 27, 2017.

In a statement recorded with the magistrate, the girl had claimed that she had gone in the morning to fetch water from a pond along with some other women and while returning back the nine accused persons forcibly ripped apart her clothes.

She said when the accompanying women tried to give a shawl to cover herself the accused threw it away.

The girl 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.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2018