Kohistan video case: Peshawar High Court orders release of six men accused of killing three brothers

The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday ordered the release of six men accused of killing three brothers linked to the Kohistan video scandal.

The province’s top court, over ruling the decision of the Kohistan sessions court, ordered the release in a short verbal decision.

A court in Kohistan had sentenced one of the accused to death and jailed five others for life and had fined them Rs200,000 each for their involvement in the murder of three brothers who had been seen dancing in a 2012 video, along with four women who were singing.

The video was unearthed by Mohammad Afzal Kohistani, another brother of the three men, who provided it to the media in order to seek protection for his brothers. He had expressed fears that his brothers would be killed by relatives of the women in accordance with local customs.

The three brothers — Shah Faisal, Rafiullah and Sherwali — were killed January in 2013.

Mohammad Afzal later claimed that the four women had also been killed. But, it turned out to be wrong when a fact-finding commission of the Supreme Court recorded the women’s statements in Kohistan.

The commission had been formed by the then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on a suo motu notice.

The case was disposed of after the commission found the women alive and recorded their statements on June 16, 2012.

Source: Dawn