Afzal Kohistani, the whistleblower who brought the gnarly truth of the Kohistan video scandal forward, was shot dead in Abbottabad on Wednesday by unidentified men. Kohistani has repeatedly asked form security. According to Express Tribune , just a few days before his murder Kohistani had written to the Hazara deputy inspector general and Mansehra district police officer requesting the provision of police security due to threats to his life.
What was the Kohistan incident?
The incident was sparked by a video in which two boys and five girls were seen dancing and singing in a video made at a private wedding. The video was later leaked and caused outrage as the gathering had taken place in an extremely conservative village of Khyber Pakhtunkwa.
A local jirga was convened by the girls’ families, which ordered that the girls and boys in the video be killed.
Kohistani had brought the case to attention in 2012, prompting the Supreme Court to take suo motu notice of the matter. Kohistani stated that the five girls and two boys seen in the video were all killed on the Jirga’s orders. A year later three of the Afzal’s brothers were killed by the girls’ tribesmen.
PPP Senator Sherry Rehman revealed her shock at the murder of Kohistani and questioned why security provisions weren’t made.
Will be raising this shocking murder of Afzal Kohistani in parliament. This was the brave man who publicised the honour killings of 3 girls,boys from the Kohistan video scandal; had been receiving death threats for a long time,yet wasn’t provided security https://t.co/fmrrXB9LBs
— SenatorSherryRehman (@sherryrehman) March 7, 2019
Kohistani highlighted the gruesome murders of the five girls and two boys in the video
I march because the only pursuer of 7 years old Kohistan video case Afzal Kohistani killed two hours ago. He fought for justice against the brutal killing of three girls who were killed by jirga against the simple videos of them being spread in the village in 2012 #AuratMarch2019 pic.twitter.com/IXoaIfuSVB
— Nighat Dad (@nighatdad) March 6, 2019