Islamabad: Six months after a jirga in northern Pakistan called for action against a group of men and women purportedly seen dancing in a video, three brothers of one of the men have been killed by the women`s tribe, a provincial minister has said.
Three brothers of Mohammad Afzal, who was at the centre of a controversy over the video in June last year, were shot dead and another man was injured in an attack in Kohistan district on Thursday.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said the three slain men were buried after an autopsy was performed on their bodies.
He said 18 people had been booked in an FIR registered following the murders and police had been directed to arrest the killers at any cost.
The emergence of the video showing men and women clapping and dancing at a wedding in Kohistan, 175 km from Islamabad, caused a major controversy last year.
Subsequently, a jirga sentenced four women and two men to death for allegedly featuring in the video.
Mohammad Afzal, a member of the Salakhel tribe, alleged that the four women shown in the video had been killed. This sparked an enmity between the Salakhel and Suramkhel tribes.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry took notice of the incident after protests by civil society and rights groups.
He formed an inquiry commission headed by a judge and members of the panel went to Kohistan and met some of the women shown in the video.
Subsequently, the apex court disposed off the case.
The two men shown in the video were released from jail a few weeks ago.
Local residents told the media that the enmity between the Salakhel and Suramkhel tribes was unlikely to end until the two men shown in the video were killed.
PTI
