MANSEHRA: A court in Kolai-Palas district of Kohistan region on Wednesday remanded three suspects in custody over the killing of a young girl on the orders of a local jirga.

“We [police] sought seven days physical remand of Abdul Qayyum, Mohammad Naseer and another accused in the case but the magistrate handed them over to us for six days,” district police officer Kolai-Palas in Kohistan region Mukhtar Khan Tanoli told reporters.

He said the three, who were held on Tuesday night, allegedly aided and abetted the so-called “honour killing” of the girl.

The DPO said the police continued to hunt for other accused in far-off Sharyal village hoping for early arrests.

The girl was killed allegedly by her father on the orders of a jirga in Barsharyal area of Kolai-Palas district after a social media video and pictures showed her and her friend in the company of two na mehram (stranger) boys of their village, an act considered taboo in the area.

However, the other girl was rescued by the police. The DPO also told reporters that the police had seized the original pictures of two girls and two boys that were edited before being uploaded on a fake Facebook account as a video clip.

“We’re committed to exposing all culprits and ensuring their punishment,” he said.

Mr Tanoli said the pictures were cropped and combined in a video with the addition of a local folk song in the background to show girls and boys in a “romantic relationship.”

He said the police had taken Aiman Dar, whose name was used for the Facebook account ID, into protective custody.

Meanwhile, theFederal Investigation Agency’s Cyber-Crime Wing completed a probe into the girl’s killing and submitted its report to the police’s high-ups.

“We completed our task, which was based on the questions raised by police but we cannot make our findings public now as such an act can harm the ongoing investigation into this sensitive case,” FIA deputy director Mohammad Asif (cybercrime) told reporters.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2023