MIRAMSHAH: The Bannu regional police officer has constituted a four-member joint investigation team for probing the honour killing of two teenage girls, whose ‘objectionable’ video went viral lately.

The police have so far arrested four suspects, including the video recorder and the one, released on social media.

North Waziristan district police officer Shafiullah Gandapur will supervise the JIT, whose members include DSP Shahid Adnan, sub-inspectors Mir Sahib Khan and Mohammad Nawaz and assistant sub-inspector Farman Ali.

DPO Gandapur told reporters that the police had arrested Umer Ayaz, who had recorded the video and was seen in it; Fida Mohammad, a friend of Umer Ayaz with whom he had shared the video and suspected him of making it viral; father of one of the girls, Radwal Khan, and a cousin of the girls Roohuddin.

He said the alleged killer, Mohammad Aslam, who was also a cousin of the girls aged 16 and 18 respectively, had gone into hiding and the police were making efforts for his early arrest.

Video recorder among four held, suspected killer at large

The DPO said the police had also contacted cybercrime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency with a request for the deletion of the objectionable video from different websites.

He said the central character, Umer Ayaz, 28, was married and had two children.

Mr Gandapur said as the family had been keeping the issue a secret, it was a challenging case for the police.

“None of the family members had approached the police, so the SHO registered the FIR of the occurrence as the complainant,” he said.

The DPO said provincial police officer Sanaullah Abbasi was taking keen interest in the case. He said the district police were in contact with Karachi police for the tracing of the suspected killer as he used to live there before the killings.

Mr Gandapur said another woman seen in the 52 seconds video was the suspected killer’s wife, who seemed to be spared by the family, as she wasn’t found to be doing anything objectionable.

He said the girls’ family had migrated from South Waziristan area due to the Rah-i-Nijat military operation against militants before settling in Shamplan Garyam village of North Waziristan area.

The DPO added that the family of the deceased girls claimed that the video was filmed around a year ago.

He said Umer Ayaz revealed during investigation that he had only shared the video with friend Fida Mohammad, so he was suspected of making the video viral on social media.

The DPO added that due to sensitivity of the issue, the JIT comprised trained police officers to look into every aspect of the killings.

The girls were killed on May 14, while the Razmak police station registered its FIR on May 15. Initially, the FIR included Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code but later, Pakistan Penal Code’s Section 311 dealing with fasad fil ard (mischief on earth) and Section 201 (causing of the disappearance of evidence) and Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act’s Section 19 (unauthorised interception of a transmission) were included in it.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2020