MANSEHRA: Police have rescued an 18-year-old woman in Kolai-Palas district after a jirga issued an honour killing decree for her.

Police investigator Tasal Shah told Dawn on Saturday that the jirga ordered the killing of the woman after she was found to be in contact with a stranger over the mobile phone.

He said the woman fled the area after the issuance of the jirga decree and sought protection at a police post before a magistrate recorded her statement and she was shifted to Darul Aman in Abbottabad.

Mr Shah said a mob intercepted police vehicles as the woman was being shifted to the magistrate’s court in Nazir Bazaar Weeran area.

He said the police arrested 11 people, including the girl’s father and brothers, and local tribesmen, and booked 15 others, who fled, for threatening the woman’s life.

Noor Mohammad of the Shararkot police post registered an FIR on his own on Friday night insisting the 18-year-old woman feared murder on the jirga’s decree.

“They [mobsters] tried to take away the girl but DPO Mukhtar Khan stepped in and invited them to his office for talks. This is how we managed to present her before the magistrate,” he said.

RECONSTRUCTION DEMANDED: Youth men of Dubair Valley in Upper Kohistan district on Saturday demanded the early reconstruction of the roads and health and educational facilities washed away in last year’s flash floods.

“We continue to reel from the devastation of last year’s flash floods as the government has yet to rebuild roads, health and educational centres,” Juma Shah Jallali told a jirga in Dubair Adda area, where four people were swept away by floodwater last year.

The participants formed a committee to take up their issues, especially delayed infrastructure reconstruction, with authorities.

Mr Jallali said an eight kilometers long section of the main artery was washed away by last year’s flooding but it had yet to be rehabilitated.

He also complained about a long delay in the reconstruction of schools and health centres damaged and destroyed by flash floods.

The jirga decided to reconstruct the bumpy section of the road linking the Karakoram Highway with upper parts of Dubair Valley on their own.

SHOPS SEALED: The tehsil administration and agriculture department on Saturday sealed many shops in Baffa-Pakhal area for selling fertilisers at exorbitant prices and not maintaining stock records.

The action was led by assistant commissioner Novaria Farooq and director (agriculture) Tariq Mehmood.

Mr Mehmood said the crackdown on profiteering and hoarding would continue.

Published in Dawn, October 22th, 2023