PESHAWAR, July 6: The Amnesty International (AI), has in a letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan, asked him to ensure that justice is done to a young woman gang-raped by a tribal council.

The Pakistani authorities must act to ensure that tribal councils cease to arrogate unlawful powers to themselves, says the letter.

“Given the wide local participation, it must be assumed that local police was aware of the event as it unfolded, if not directly present during the incident,” the AI said.

According to a press release issued here on Saturday, the organisation said that after the ‘judgment’ was pronounced by the tribal council, the gang-rape was carried out by four men, including one member of the tribal council, in an adjacent hut while members of the Mastoi tribe reportedly stood outside and cheered. After the rape, the woman was driven naked through the streets of her village before hundreds of onlookers. Relatives of the girl were too frightened of retribution by the Mastoi tribe to approach police.

In the letter, the AI said that the local police only accepted a complaint by the woman’s father seven days after the offence, when a delegation of lawyers met local police authorities and insisted on the registration of the complaint. As the perpetrators had fled, police arrested eight of their relatives to put pressure on the accused to surrender. On July 2, police arrested eight people, including members of the tribal council who had taken part in the ‘trial’ on charges of abetment of rape.

The Amnesty International welcomed the Supreme Court’s interest in this case, and presented two other cases raised in previous reports, and requested the authorities to take urgent measures to bring perpetrators of these abuses to justice. The AI “has repeatedly urged the government to take such measures, but has yet to receive an official response.”

“Tribal councils,” said the AI, “have no legal standing, and the Pakistani authorities have failed to take adequate measures to prevent such bodies from taking the law into their own hands.”