DADU: A chieftain of Rind tribe has rejected reports that a jirga declared 10-year-old Gul Sama as kari and ordered she be stoned to death in Shahi Makan area in Khirthar region about a fortnight ago and insisted the girl had died in a landslide incident.

Sardar Mir Bibrag Khan Rind, younger son of Rind tribal chief Sardar Yar Mohammad Khan, said in a statement released to local media persons on Monday that according to Baloch tribal traditions, if a jirga was to decide an honour killing case, it was ensured first that both the accused and the aggrieved parties and a group of impartial persons of the area were in attendance to hear its decision, he said.

Moreover, he continued, funeral prayers for the persons declared karo and kari by a jirga were never held while in this case the girl’s namaaz-i-janaza was offered by a prayer leader.

Bibrag Rind who wielded influence over his tribesmen living in Khirthar range on both sides of Sindh-Balochistan border said that reports of his presence in the area the day the incident happened were untrue. He was not in Shahi Makan nor any jirga was convened there, he said.

‘Funeral prayers are not held for karo-kari couples but the girl’s was offered’

He said that the incident was being used by his family’s rivals to malign reputation and influence of his father and his tribe in the area.

Local MNA of Pakistan Peoples Party and chief minister were using different tactics from time to time to tarnish his father’s reputation, he alleged.

Police find bloodstains on stones

An investigation team of Wahi Pandhi police led by SHO Inspector Ameer Ali Brohi visited the crime scene in Shahi Makan area on Monday and spotted bloodstains on the stones found close to the house of Ali Bux Rind, the victim’s father.

Writing head constable Muneer Ahmed Chandio, a member of the team, said that the victim’s family insisted the girl was not killed but she died after sustaining serious wounds when some heavy stones fell on her from a hilltop. The family members refused to hand over to them the clothes that the girl was wearing at the time of her death, he said.

The team recorded statements of children in the small village of five houses and almost all of them corroborated their elders’ story.

The girl’s father and Maulvi Mumtaz Leghari who led the girl’s funeral prayers identified the grave at Lalri Lak graveyard, two kilometres from the village near Karo Koat hills. Police have deployed guards near the grave for fear the father or his relatives might make the corpse disappear.

Ali Nawaz Rind, a suspect nominated in the girl’s FIR, said he did not trust investigation by local police and demanded impartial judicial inquiry into the girl’s death. Police were harassing them at the instigation of some influential people, he claimed.

Most suspects fled to Balochistan, says SSP

Dadu SSP Dr Farrukh Raza Malik has said that police are conducting raids at different places to arrest the other suspects in the case and feared most of them might already have escaped to Balochistan.

He told journalists on Monday that the accused would be arrested after formation of a committee of senior officers. Mukhtiarkar of Johi had been directed to prepare a map of the crime scene, he said.

He said that application was submitted to district and sessions judge of Dadu for exhumation of the victim’s body and he had reportedly directed civil and judicial magistrate of Johi to dispose of the application in accordance with law.

Victim’s mother remanded

A lower court in Johi on Monday remanded for two days in police custody the mother of the victim.

Wahi Pandhi police produced Lilan Rind in the court of judicial magistrate and civil judge of Johi and sought her remand. The court granted two days’ remand in police custody to help the investigation.

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2019