Murder suspect of Kohistan video scandal whistleblower arrested

The Khyber Pakthunkhwa (KP) Police arrested on Friday a suspected killer of Afzal Kohistani, who had exposed the Kohistan video scandal.

According to local media reports, the suspect, identified as Mausam Khan, was arrested after a police raid in a house in Palas. The police also recovered a weapon from the accused's possession.

Kohistani was shot dead in Abbottabad on Wednesday night by unidentified gunmen. According to witnesses, the victim died on the spot after suffering multiple wounds.

Back in 2012, a video leaked in Kohistan showing two men dancing to the clapping and singing of five women at a wedding. Soon after the video leaked, a jirga was held by the girls’ tribe, which decreed the killing of the boys and girls under ‘riwaj’ (a tribal custom).

After their killing, Kohistani, the brother of the two boys, exposed the truth to the media and to the court that the girls and the boys in the video had been killed on orders of the jirga. However, officials in the area claimed that the murders of the boys and the girls did not take place and they were alive.

Later on, the Supreme Court took a sou-motu notice of the incident. Investigators were presented with women, who family members said were proof that those who appeared in the video were alive. However, later it was unearthed that the officials of the tribe had presented were not the same girls and were some other veiled girls.