Top Pakistan judge to probe woman's flogging; Samar Minallah, who works for a Pakistani human rights organisation, said "The entire village knows she is innocent"
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Image taken from the Dawn News channel on April 4, 2009, shows a burqa-clad woman being held down while she is flogged in Swat Valley. Pakistan's top judge has ordered a court hearing into the public flogging, filmed on an amateur video, that has raised alarm about the tightening grip of Islamist hardliners.
(AFP/File/Str)Top Pakistan judge to probe woman's flogging
ISLAMABAD (AFP) – Pakistan's top judge has ordered a court hearing into the public flogging of a veiled woman, filmed on an amateur video, that has raised alarm about the tightening grip of Islamist hardliners.
The details of her alleged crime were confused, but residents in her village of Kala Killey in Swat, said the woman was accused of illicit relations with an electrician and forced to marry him as part of her punishment.
The footage, apparently from a mobile phone, shows two men pinning down a burka-clad woman by her feet and shoulders, while a bearded man in a turban flogs her 34 times with a whip as she screams in agony.
Chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry has ordered the girl to be produced in court at a hearing set for Monday, according to a Supreme Court statement.
He has also demanded that government and regional officials from the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) appear in person at the hearing.
"Chief justice of Pakistan has been pleased to order that... the matter be fixed before a larger bench on Monday," said a statement from the court.
"Chaudhry has taken a serious notice of the video clipping on TV for violation of fundamental rights, guaranteed under the constitution of Pakistan," it added in English.
At least two local residents said the trouble started when unknown people told the Taliban that the electrician visited the girl's house on January 3, where other women and children were also present.
"The Taliban arrested the couple and recorded their statements," one of the residents told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"Both the girl and the electrician assured the Taliban that they had not committed any sin. The couple also expressed readiness to undergo a medical examination to prove their innocence."
But the Taliban ordered them to be whipped.
"The electrician was also whipped but it is not known where he was taken," said a low-level local government leader, who also requested anonymity.
"The couple was forced into marrying each other after they were handed down the punishment," he said.
"Nobody can go and see the couple as armed Taliban keep patrolling the village and mountains surrounding it," he added.
Local government officials and residents said the video was filmed on January 3, some weeks before the government signed a controversial agreement with a pro-Taliban cleric to allow sharia law in Swat region.
The deal triggered alarm around the world among those fearful that it would embolden militants across the northwest, a hotbed for Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Thousands of Taliban followers spent nearly two years waging a terrifying campaign to enforce sharia law in Swat -- beheading opponents, bombing girls' schools, outlawing entertainment and fighting government forces.
Samar Minallah, who works for a Pakistan human rights organisation, said she was given the tape by people in Swat and distributed it to the Western media to highlight the cruelties endured by women in the region.
"This girl was flogged on the basis of suspicious and false evidence. She is 17 years old... The entire village knows she is innocent," Minallah told AFP.
There was no clear confirmation of the woman's age, nor the reason for the flogging -- a common punishment handed down by Taliban hardliners for a variety of misdemeanours in Swat and other parts of northwest Pakistan.
The Pakistan government has condemned the flogging and ordered an inquiry.
Article: HERE
By Debra Killalea
03rd April 2009
This is the chilling moment a 17-year-old Pakistani girl is punished in a horrific flogging by Taliban militants for being seen with a man who is not her husband.
Mobile phone footage shows the girl begging for mercy as she receives 37 lashes at the hands of her brother while two others hold her down.
'Please stop it,' she begs but the men completely disregard her desperate pleas and pathetic attempts to defend herself.
The girl, 17, is held down by two men as a third raises a whip to flog her
The footage ends when the injured girl is dragged away into a nearby building.
Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan claimed responsibility for the flogging in today's Guardian, which obtained footage of the shocking act.
He said it was the Taliban's right to thrash women and that the girl was being punished for coming out of her house with another man who was not her husband.
But some claim the commander ordered the flogging to get revenge after the girl refused to accept a marriage proposal.
The man, believed to be the girl's brother, brings the whip down as she tries in vain to protect herself
Pashtun documentary maker Samar Minallah, who lived in Swat for two years in the late 1990s, handed the footage to the media.
The footage has sparked alarm across Pakistan and the west, which fears the Taliban is seeking to extend its influence across the region.
The girl in the video, named as Chaand, was punished in Matta in the Swat Valley.
She did not receive a trial and was punished according to the suspicions of one neighbour.
Ms Minallah said the incident had taken place within the last 10 days, following the signing of a peace deal between the provincial government and militants which saw them gain control of the valley's judicial system.
He gets ready to raise his whip again as the two men continue to hold her down
She said the video is being circulated because the Taliban wanted people to see it.
'They want to give the message that this is taking place after the peace deal because this is something they ideologically believe in,' she said.
Journalists and human rights workers have confirmed the video was recent, but could not say exactly when it was taken.
Human rights officials also claim that the Taliban have committed many atrocities since the peace deal was signed with officials settling disputes 'according to their whims.'
Mingora, the largest city in Swat district, has been under a mixture of traditional and Islamic law since the peace deal was signed on February 15.
Although the Taliban do not control the courts, they continue to carry out punishments in some regional areas.
The punishment is not the first to be dished out since the peace deal was signed with some sources claiming women have been whipped for harmless activities such as shopping.
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