LANDI KOTAL (Khyber Agency), June 4: A woman and three men were publicly executed in Bara on Monday after a jirga found them ‘guilty of adultery’. Haji Jan Gul, a member of Sipah Eslahee Committee, told Dawn that acting on a tip, members of his committee had caught the four in a house in Alamgudar village.

He said the four had been interrogated by the jirga before the verdict for their execution was issued.

He said one of the men, Said Ras of Mardan, had told the jirga that he got the woman, who was his relative, into the business to pay off his debt. The woman admitted that the statement was correct and pleaded for mercy.

Mr Gul said the jirga had unanimously decided to punish the woman, Said Ras, Afghan citizen Ziauddin and Sheikho of Landi Kotal.

They were shot dead with Kalashnikovs in an open area near Speray Dam. Sources said a large number of people witnessed the execution. The bodies were handed over to the relatives of the deceased.

Bara political administration confirmed the incident but did not register a case.

This was the second incident of public execution in the Khyber Agency in three months. Two men and a woman were stoned and later gunned down in Akakhel area of Bara tehsil on March 14.