UPDATE:Pakistani Jirga Sentences 6 To Death For Dancing Together At Wedding

Adultery isn't the only thing that can get you executed in certain backwoods, rural areas of countries like Pakistan. Nope, mixing with members of the opposite gender can get you sentenced to death, as well- as in the case of six people in Kohistan, Pakistan who were videotaped dancing and singing together at a wedding. Apparently they consider people like that Ghul (fornicators). No wonder Pakistan is ranked #1 in Google's search for 'sex'.

The four women and two men were found guilty of “disrespecting gender segregation customs" at a wedding, by a local jirga (tribal assembly of elders). Although the women are married, the two men they were dancing and singing with are not blood-relatives (mahrams), which is a no-no in Islam. I'm not sure how you can expect to segregate genders at a wedding, but I assume they somehow manage.

Someone at the wedding, two months ago, taped the festivities on their cell phone and then forwarded the footage to the families of the women. The oldest brother of the two accused men, Muhammad Afzal said,

“The jirga did not bother to hear the ‘accused’ and condemned them to death,”  

The jirga obviously knows what they are doing is wrong because they have raised Rs400,00 in case they're sued.

They have also rounded up 40 young men to execute the condemned six. The men are supposed to be shot first, which might be difficult since they happened to escape. The women, on the other hand, were shipped back from their in-laws to their parents' village, and according to Afzal,

“They are tied with ropes. They are being starved.”

Afzal also believes the tape could be bogus since it doesn't really show them dancing together, and he has enemies.

“Since our family is affluent and owns vast acres of forestland, orchards and agriculture farms in Bando Baidar village. They (our rivals) hatched a plot to deprive us of our property."

Abdul Majeed Afridi, the district police officer, agrees with Afzal. The background where the women are singing folk songs is not the same as where the men are seen dancing.
In the meantime, the authorities are doing what they can to make sure the women are not harmed, although there is a discrepancy as to whether the women are safe or not.

“We have detained eight people (from the women’s tribe). And they have given us a written guarantee that the women would not be harmed,” Hazara Division Commissioner Khalid Khan Umerzai told The Express Tribune.

The commissioner claimed that the women were safe at the homes of their parents in Seertaiy village. He also confirmed that the condemned men have fled their village.

The local police chief said that a police party, headed by a deputy superintendent police, has been sent to Seertaiy village to recover the girls who, The Express Tribune reported, were locked in a room and were being starved.

Abdul Majeed Afridi, the district police officer, also endorsed Umerzai’s claimed that “the women are safe in their parents’ homes”.

Why the jirgas are still allowed to exist in 21st century Pakistan, is shameful. Various rights organizations in Pakistan are demanding the end to jirgas. Good luck with that. As Pakistan becomes more Talibanized, it will only get worse.

UPDATE 6/4/12  Some bizarre, conflicting reports have emerged regarding this whole incident. According to the Pakistani news site Dawn, Afzal recently contacted journalists notifying them that the women had been killed by family members on May 30. On the other hand, police officials claim they have arrested four people, Afzal, his two brothers, and the man who videotaped the incident. They also say that no such jirga took place, and that the women are alive and well. Afzal has demanded that if the women are alive, they should bring them forth. So, who knows where the truth lies.

Pakistan Doctor Who Helped Capture Bin Laden Sentenced To 33 Years UPDATE:

If there was any doubt that Pakistan knew about and harbored Osama Bin Laden for all those years in Abbottabad, set those doubts aside, because it's quite obvious they sympathized with one of the world's most infamous terrorists. They've always shown anger and disapproval over the killing of Bin Laden, and now they've sentenced Shakil Afridi, the doctor who was instrumental in capturing Bin Laden, to 33 years in jail for high treason. A man who should have been honored for helping rid the world of an incredibly evil man is instead being severely punished.

According to a Pakistani official, Nasir Khan, he has also been fined around $3,500, and if he doesn't pay up 3 1/2 years will be added to his sentence.

The U.S., of course, has asked for his release, and the State Department's Victoria Nuland said of the situation,

“Our views on it haven’t changed. We continue to see no basis for Dr. Afridi to be held,” Nuland said. “We will continue to make those representations to the government of Pakistan.”

When asked why she only referred to Afridi’s charges and did not acknowledge his actual conviction and sentencing, Nuland said: “It’s not clear that the legal process is over, OK? There may be other options for him legally.”

Since Afridi was charged with treason last year, the U.S. has been trying to get Pakistan to allow the good doctor and his family to come to the states, obviously to no avail. John McCain-R and Carl Levin-D of the Senate Ared Services Committee both have called the sentence "shocking and outrageous" and want him pardoned and released immediately.

“Dr. Afridi’s continuing imprisonment and treatment as a criminal will only do further harm to U.S.-Pakistani relations, including diminishing Congress’s willingness to provide financial assistance to Pakistan,” they warned.

Not that Pakistan cares. They've been pulling the proverbial fleece over our eyes for years, pretending to be allies when they're really not. They're no better than the terrorists they seem to aid and abet.

UPDATE: 5/31/12  Now Pakistan is claiming it had nothing to do with his CIA affiliation, but rather his alleged ties to militants.  Like that's believable.

Rise In Acid Attacks On Men By Women In Pakistan

Not that this is to be condoned, but it seems it's payback time for men in Pakistan. Women, the usual victims of acid attacks (which is used as a form of punishment for anything from dishonoring their families and/or husbands to rejecting a marriage proposal o husbands sexual demands), are now turning the tables on the male population. Apparently, there has been a recent increase in acid attacks by women, and no-one over there seem to know why. 

But it's quite obvious they've learned through example.  There's a great monologue in Will Shakespeare's "Othello" where villain Iago's wife Emilia explains to Desdemona why women do the things they do.

But I do think it is their husbands' faults
If wives do fall. Say that they slack their duties
And pour our treasures into foreign laps
Or else break out in peevish jealousies
Throwing restraint upon us. Or say they strike us
Or scant our former having in despite.
Why, we have galls, and though we have some grace,
Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know
Their wives have sense like them. They see and smell
And have their palates both for sweet and sour,
As husbands have. What is it that they do
When they change us for others? Is it sport?
I think it is. And doth affection breed it?
I think it doth. Is ’t frailty that thus errs?
It is so too. And have not we affections,
Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?
Then let them use us well, else let them know,
The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.

The last two lines sum it all up. Unfortunately, as the predominate targets of such horrendous acts of revenge, Pakistani women are learning that the best way to lash out is to use acid.

One male victim, 24-year-old Sheikh Mohammad Noman, had acid thrown on his face by his wife- she wanted a divorce so she could get back together with her ex-husband, and Noman refused since he still loved her. Although he was blinded and burned, his wounds don't seem as severe as so many photos I've seen of female victims, but he was blinded in one eye and will suffer pain for a long time. Noman's wife will be tried, but is currently out on bail.

According to a women's rights group The Aurat Foundation, the bulk of attacks are against women.

More than 8,500 acid attacks, forced marriages and other forms of violence against women were reported in Pakistan in 2011, according to The Aurat Foundation, a women's rights organization.

Up until recently, Pakistan has been very lax regarding honor crimes, and it wasn't until 2011 that they actually set up laws that criminalize acid attacks. Anyone convicted of an attack will be jailed for at least 14 years, which doesn't seem much for an act of violence that makes someone's life a living hell. And laws or not, will it make any difference? In a patriarchal/chauvinist society the men will more than likely still get off easy. Like Bilal Khar, the rich and powerful ex-husband of 33-year-old dancer/prostitute Fakhra Younus, who 12 years ago severely disfigured Younus with acid and still walks free today. Younus, in despair over Pakistan's lack of interest in such atrocities and the indifference and insensitivity of Pakistan's leaders,  recently took her own life by jumping out of a sixth floor building in Rome. Khar still denies he was the perpetrator, and says it was some other man with the same name.
According to this CNN interview regarding the rise in female generated acid attacks, there have been a whopping 3 attacks this year so far.

Money The Root Of All Jihad: Khalil Dale Beheaded For Not Paying Ransom

For all their claims that their holy jihad is against foreign invaders, most Islamist extremists are nothing more than low down, barbaric, common criminals. Supposed holy warriors don't attack innocents, they don't attack people who are in their country to help, and they certainly don't kill someone because a ransom wasn't paid. But it happens alot. 

Ironically, the kidnapped Scottish Red Cross nurse who was found decapitated, dumped by the side of a Quetta, Pakistan road covered in plastic with a note attached saying “This is the body of Khalil who we have slaughtered for not paying a ransom amount” was a Muslim convert. 60-year-old Khalil Rasjed Dale (fka Ken) converted to Islam 30 years ago.  I wonder if he ever envisioned having his head chopped off by fellow believers?

Dale had been working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) when he was kidnapped on January 5th. He was driving with two others, a Pakistani doctor and a driver, but there was no interest in those two because obviously there was no monetary gain to be had. Foreign aid workers are often targets because they are potential cash cows. 

In spite of  "tireless efforts" to gain Dale's release by the British government (working in tandem with the ICRC), the fact that no money exchanged hands effectively secured his death sentence. Both Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague and the ICRC's Director General Yves Daccord condemned the act:

“The ICRC condemns in the strongest possible terms this barbaric act. All of us at the ICRC and at the British Red Cross share the grief and outrage of Khalil’s family and friends.”

“This was a senseless and cruel act, targeting someone whose role was to help the people of Pakistan, and causing immeasurable pain to those who knew Dale,” Hague said in the statement.

Dale had been shot and beheaded, but who knows if he was still alive when they sliced his head off.  According to Safdar Hussain,the doctor who examined his body, “A sharp knife was used to sever his head from the body.”  Not surprisingly, there's a video of his beheading that the butchers have threatened to release, but the ICRC has asked the Pakistani  media to not air it. Who knows if they will comply. 

It's time aid organizations pull out of that whole region.


Sources: Guardian UK, Al Arabiya, Daily Mail

Pakistan Girls' School Blown Up By Al-Qaeda Linked Militants

Women haters in Pakistan blew up a girls' school in Khyber agency (a tribal region bordering Afghanistan) because  they obviously think the woman's role is in the home making their men samosas and popping out future suicide bombers. Thankfully there were no girls at school at the time, and no-one was injured. But I'm sure if they continue to try to educate themselves, the next thing will be acid.

JAMRUD: Militants planted explosives in the boundary wall of a government girls’ middle school, destroying the building in the Ghundai area of Jamrud, Khyber Agency on Saturday.

“The explosive material was planted in the boundary wall of the school, which destroyed the building,” said officials of sub-district Jamrud.

The owner of the school, Malik Haji Zewar Khan, told The Express Tribune that he heard a sound but took it as thunder due to heavy rain the previous night. But after few minutes, his son Khalid, who was a watchman of the school, informed him of what had happened.

Soon after the explosion, locals started rescue work by gathering the debris of the damaged building.

Assistant Political Agent (APA) Jamrud, Mohammad Jamil, employed sniffer dogs and successfully arrested a suspect, Sher Haider, who lived near the school, and arrested three other armed suspects.

APA Jamrud also issued orders for the arrest of the school watchmen.
While talking to media from an undisclosed location, Abdullah Azzam Brigade spokesperson Abu Zarar claimed responsibility for the attack.

Surprisingly, or maybe not, Khyber Agency is considered to be the most literate of all 8 tribal regions of Pakistan.

Pakistani Police Raid Marriage of 5-Year-Old Girl to 18-Year-Old

Chalk it up to supreme ignorance and a religion whose prophet married an underage girl and you have people pawning off their own pre-pubescent daughters, in some cases no older than a toddler.

In Peshawar, Pakistan police raided the wedding of 5-year-old Ajwa to 18-year-old Amir Khan.

“They were informed that marriage of underage girls is illegal and they were shocked,” a policeman, who was part of the raid, told The Express Tribune. “They said we’re illiterate and do not know about the law.” The girl’s parents have been arrested.   [snip]

While the police arrested only the girl’s parents and not the boy’s, DSP Riazul Islam said that an FIR will be registered against not just the girl’s but the boy himself and his parents as well for attempting to marry an underage girl.

The marriage of underage boys and girls is a crime under the Marriage Restrict Act of 1929 as well as against the UN Conventions on the Rights of the Child, said Imran Takkar, the operations manager at NGO the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child. Pakistan has ratified and signed the UN charter.

“Under the marriage act, no girl below the age of 16 can be married off. The UN convention says that any boy or girl below the age of 18 is a child,” Takkar explained.

5 years old? Whether they are just claiming ignorance of the law, or actually had no clue, is debatable. What isn't debatable is their stupidity.

Pakistan- Man Honor Kills Divorced Cousin For Having 'Suspicious Character'

Watch out if you have a 'suspicious' character in Pakistan. And you're female.

21 year-old Mehwish was divorced by her husband Imran because of her 'suspicious character".  Then her cousin Karamat murdered her after an altercation where he told her that her alleged 'suspicious character" had brought shame to his family.

Yes, that's all it takes to get yourself killed in a region where 'honor' is worth more than a human life.

An FIR was registered at Police Station Housing Colony on the complaint of Kausar Bibi, mother of the deceased, against Karamat on the charge of section 302 of Pakistan Penal Code, said Station House Officer (SHO) Inspector Zahid Khan.

Cousin Karamat has yet to be arrested, though police claim they are doing what they can to apprehend him.