By Rahimullah Yusufzai
PESHAWAR: Chand Bibi, the young girl who was shown being flogged by the Swat Taliban in a videotape aired on television channels, gave a statement to a Qazi, or judge, on Sunday, denying the incident. Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the NWFP information minister, told The News that she made the statement to Mohammad Riaz, the judge of the Qazi Court for Matta Tehsil, and the commissioner of Malakand division, Syed Mohammad Javed, both of whom visited her village, Kala Killay, in Kabal Swat district on Sunday.
Quoting the commissioner, Mian Iftikhar said the girl, Chand Bibi, made it clear that she was indeed married to Adalat Khan and everyone in the village knew about it. She refuted the reports that both of them were flogged by the Taliban as punishment for maintaining illicit relations and then forcibly married.
According to the information minister, the commissioner and the judge had visited Kala Killay to record the statements of the couple on the directive of the chief secretary of the NWFP. The chief secretary and Inspector General of Police, NWFP, had been directed by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, to appear before his court and also produce the girl who was flogged. The chief justice had taken suo moto notice of the case after the two-minute videotape was repeatedly shown on TV channels.
The incident caused outrage in Pakistan and provoked members of the civil society and others to stage protests in many cities of the country. The flogging of the girl, stated to be 17-years old, was condemned by most political parties, human rights organisations and even religious scholars. Mian Iftikhar disclosed that Chand Bibi had expressed her inability to appear before the Supreme Court as she and her family felt it wasn't appropriate for a purdah-observing Pakhtun girl to do so in the presence of TV cameras and onlookers. "She requested the judge and the commissioner to spare her from appearing in the court in Islamabad," he said.
However, her husband, Adalat Khan, was ready to appear in the Supreme Court. Mian Iftikhar said the judge, Mohammad Riaz, also recorded the statement of Adalat Khan and he also denied the reports that he or his wife, Chand Bibi, had been lashed by the Taliban. "Adalat Khan wondered as to why nobody in their village knew about this incident. He insisted that no such incident had taken place in Kala Killay," the minister said.
Iftikhar lamented that a fake video had been used to tarnish the reputation of the people of Swat and disrupt the peace process in the district. "We condemn the acts of repression against women. We too are outraged when extremist elements commit atrocities against women and also men. But the incident depicted in the videotape never took place in Swat," he argued.
He felt the timing of the release of the videotape was intriguing. "It appears to be part of a conspiracy to foil the peace agreement in Swat and put pressure on President Zardari not to sign the Nizam-i-Adl Regulation for Malakand division," he said.
