MANSEHRA: The Peshawar High Court’s Abbottabad Circuit Bench on Wednesday set aside the conviction of three persons for the “honour killing” of five women in Kohistan region.

Justice Kamran Hayat Miankhel and Justice Ijaz Khan announced the verdict after completing the hearing into petitions against the Kolai-Palas trial court’s 2019 decision to hand down the sentence of life imprisonment to the three accused in the case, including Umar Khan, Saheere and Sabeer.

The trial court had acquitted the other accused.

Five Kohistani women were allegedly killed by their brothers and fathers in 2012 after a viral video showed the former clap as two men danced at a wedding function.

The police arrested eight men for honour killings. The women’s bodies couldn’t be found as they’re reportedly dumped in the local streams and rivers.

Afzal Kohistan, who brought murders to the limelight, was assassinated along with his three brothers.

Gulnazar, who was seen dancing in the video, and Bin Yaseer, who filmed him and women, have gone into hiding due to a decree issued by a local cleric for their deaths.

After the Kohistan video went viral on social media in early 2012 and women were killed, the then Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry took a suo motu notice of the issue and ordered the police to register FIR against culprits.

The Supreme Court later ordered investigation into the matter and the arrest of all those behind the “heinous crime.”

A judicial commission formed by the apex court and headed by the district and session judge of Kohistan to look into honour killings revealed that they didn’t have access to the women seen clapping in the video and that those produced before it were different from video women.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2023