PTI MNA accuses party's Ali Gandapur of facilitating suspects in DI Khan girl’s stripping case:
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) MNA Dawar Khan Kundi has
accused PTI leader and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Minister Ali Amin
Gandapur of facilitating eight people accused of involvement in the alleged stripping and parading naked of a teenage girl in Dera Ismail Khan earlier this month.
Kundi,
elected to the NA-25 constituency (DI Khan, Tank), wrote a letter to
PTI Chairman Imran Khan dated Nov 8 requesting him to ensure Gandapur's
removal from his ministerial position, and urge him to withdraw his
support from the suspects and ask the girl's family for forgiveness.
Gandapur,
who Kundi describes as "a source of embarrassment for the party",
allegedly provided "support for the criminals in the case in which an
orphan girl was paraded naked by eight armed men" in DI Khan.
"I
visited the family a week before and they asked, in fact, requested me
to make sure that Ali Amin Gandapur, revenue minister KP, may be forced
and asked to withdraw his support for the criminals," Kundi said in his
letter.
"After privately investigating the case, the reservations of
the concerned family were true. Ali Amin provided logistic and physical
support to the criminals in violation of the moral norms of society,"
he alleged.
"The notorious activities of Ali Amin Gandapur are a source of providing a bad name to the party as a whole," Kundi claimed.
He
reminded the PTI chief that "since the inception of the provincial
government of KP, we had high hopes of implementing the manifesto of PTI
in KP and vowed to make an example for the other provinces of our
homeland."
However, Gandapur's conduct has "lowered our
heads in shame", he said. It is the time that PTI stands for the orphan
girl and provide justice as soon as possible, he concluded.
Imran Khan has not responded to the accusations against Gandapur as yet.
Responding
to the allegations levelled against him by Kundi, Gandapur said the
attempts to link him with the incident were "shameful". "Levelling
baseless allegations for achieving political gains is condemnable," he
said.
"Those accusing me of patronising the accused are
unaware of the police system in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Police in KP is
completely free from political influence and it is impossible for any
minister or political leader, including me, to intervene in their work,"
Gandapur maintained.
He demanded that those responsible
for the inhumane incident be brought to justice. "If there is evidence
of me trying to influence the case in any way, you can hang me."
The PTI leader also demanded of the complainants to present proof of their accusations.
Initially,
the victim’s family had alleged that the accused had stripped the girl
and paraded her naked in the Garahmat village in Daraban tehsil on Oct
27. Later, they claimed that she was taken to the residence of one
Sanaullah where her clothes were torn off and she was beaten and kept in
illegal confinement.
The victim claimed that she had
received bruises on her arm and knee, and that she was dragged by the
suspects at gunpoint inside the house.
According to unconfirmed reports, the victim’s family was under pressure to retract their earlier statement.
Interestingly,
the Chaudwan police station registered two FIRs on Oct 27. First, the
police registered an FIR on complaint of one of the female members of
the family of the accused, while another FIR was later registered on the
complaint of the victim (name withheld).
Eight of the
nine people involved have been arrested, along with two 'facilitators'
of the main accused. The prime accused, however, remains missing.
The
arrested accused include three brothers Shahjehan, Gulestan and Ramzan,
two other brothers Nasir and Aslam, and Ikram, Sanaullah and Saidu.
8 accused of torturing girl in Dera Ismail Khan remanded into police custody
Eight of the nine people suspected of torturing and
illegally confining a teenage girl in Garahmat village of Daraban tehsil
in Dera Ismail Khan have been remanded into police custody for three
days.
The eight accused were presented on Wednesday
before Judicial Magistrate Adam Khan who was informed that the police
were still looking for one absconder.
They were handed
over to the police on a three-day physical remand. Superintendent Police
(SP) Saddar Ashfaq Khan is leading the inquiry committee conducting the
investigations in the case.
Earlier, the girl’s family had complained
that no action had been taken against the Chaudwan police station SHO,
accusing the official of supporting the suspects and registering a
concocted case against three of its members.
A brother of the girl, Sajid Khan, formally requested the
provincial police officer to order a high-level inquiry into the
incident and take strict action against the SHO.
In an
application, he alleged that Sajawal and other suspects seized his
sister on Oct 27 morning when she, along with her three cousins, went to
a local pond to fetch water. He accused them of stripping off her
clothes before forcing her to run.
According to Sajid,
his sister later took refuge in a nearby house but the suspects dragged
her out, beat her up and kept her in illegal confinement. He alleged
that the SHO first delayed the registration of the FIR and later booked
his family members on the complaint of a female relative of the
suspects.
The girl’s family had initially insisted that the suspects had paraded her naked in the area on Oct 27.
They,
however, retracted the statement on Monday, claiming that the girl was
taken to the suspect's house, where nine people beat her up, tore her
clothes and kept her in illegal confinement.
Seven held over DI Khan girl torture case
DI Khan: The police have arrested seven of the nine people
suspected of torturing and illegally confining a teenage girl in
Garahmat village of Daraban tehsil here.
The girl’s family had first insisted that the suspects paraded her naked in the area on Oct 27.
They
however retracted the statement on Monday claiming that the girl was
taken to suspect Sanaullah’s house, where nine people beat her up, tore
her clothes up and kept her in illegal confinement.
The girl claimed that she had got bruises on arm and knee and that the suspects had dragged her inside the house.
There are unconfirmed reports about the girl’s family being pressured to retract the first statement.
The
relevant Chaudwan police station registered two FIRs on Oct 27, first
on the complaint of a female family member of the suspects and second on
the girl’s.
In a statement issued here on Monday,
regional police officer Syed Fida Hassan Shah said the police had
arrested seven suspects, including brothers Shahjehan, Gulistan and
Ramzan, Ikram, Sanaullah and brothers Nasir and Aslam, while the two
others, including Sajawal and Saidu, were at large.
He claimed that he was supervising the investigation and had formed special teams for the arrest of the fugitives.
However,
the girl’s family complained that no action had been taken against the
Chaudwan police station SHO, who supported suspects and registered a
concocted case against three of its members to pressure them to hush up
the incident.
A brother of the girl, Sajid Khan, formally
requested the provincial police officer to order a high-level inquiry
into the incident and take strict action against the SHO.
In
an application, he alleged that Sajawal and other suspects seized his
sister on Oct 27 morning when she along with her three cousins went to a
local pond to fetch water, and stripping her off before forcing her
into running.
The man added that his sister later took
refuge in a nearby house but the suspects dragged her out, beat her up
and kept her in illegal confinement. He alleged that the SHO first
delayed the registration of FIR on his complaint and later booked his
family members on the complaint of a woman relative of the suspects.
PTI may expel lawmaker who accused Ali Ameen Gandapur of patronising teenage girl's abusers
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker Dawar Khan Kundi — who recently accused Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Minister
Ali Amin Gandapur of patronising men accused of stripping and parading a
teenage girl naked in Dera Ismail Khan earlier this month — faces an
uncertain future in PTI after the party's chief and information
secretary made differing statements regarding the action to be taken
against him.
PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Friday announced
that he would expel Kundi for falsely accusing Gandapur, but the
party's central information secretary, Shafqat Mahmood, hastily issued a
clarification soon after stating that a different path would be taken
in dealing with the matter.
Kundi had earlier written to
Khan requesting him to ensure Gandapur's removal from his ministerial
position, pressure him into withdrawing his support for the suspects and
ask the girl's family for forgiveness.
In the letter,
Kundi described Gandapur as "a source of embarrassment for the party",
and alleged that Gandapur provided "support for the criminals in the
case in which an orphan girl was paraded naked by eight armed men" in DI
Khan.
"I visited the family a week before and they asked — in
fact, requested — me to make sure that Ali Amin Gandapur, revenue
minister KP, is forced to withdraw his support for the criminals," Kundi
said in his letter.
Responding to the allegations
leveled against him by Kundi, Gandapur had said the attempts to link him
with the incident were "shameful".
"Those accusing me
of patronising the accused are unaware of the police system in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa. Police in KP is completely free from political influence
and it is impossible for any minister or political leader, including me,
to intervene in their work," Gandapur maintained.
On Friday, Imran Khan, while talking to media over a video link, termed Kundi a "dissident" and "a liar."
"He has had differences with the party for long, but we are now expelling him from the party," Khan said.
"This
is not the first time. He has been issuing statements against the party
and the KP chief minister over the last one year. He does not even
attend our meetings," the PTI chief claimed, adding that the party was
going to take action against him.
Handing a clean chit to
Gandapur, Khan said he had personally contacted the KP Inspector
General of Police, who had rejected the impression that he was under an
any political pressure in connection with the investigation of the case.
"Ali Ameen himself says 'hang the responsible by the
neck'," Khan said as he ruled out the possibility of Gandapur's
involvement in the incident.
However, PTI Central
Information Secretary Shafqat Mahmood in a subsequent statement said
that Kundi had not been expelled from the party as yet.
"Kundi
is being served with a show-cause notice as complaints of grave
violations of party discipline were received against him," he said.
"The PTI has a mechanism for inclusion and exclusion from the party," he added.
"Action will be taken as per the rules and regulation of the party if allegations against Kundi are proved," he said.
"A grave violation of party discipline could also result in expulsion," he added.
