Reports about another horrific event involving violence against women surfaced on Sunday in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kohistan region, where an 18-year-old woman who was seen in a photo with a local man met a gruesome fate.

Police reported that after images of the woman went viral on social media, a local jirga allegedly ordered her death and she was shot dead inside her home. There are reports that a second woman was also seen in viral photos with the same man and she had been handed over to her family by a local court.

While details remain murky, Aaj News has been attempting to gather information from this remote region known for tribal tradition and secretive honour-killing business.

Kohistan is known for its tribal traditions and closely guarded secrets. A similar incident was reported here in 2012 when up to five girls were killed after their videos with local men went viral. The entire episode of the so-called honour killings was so secretive that a probe spanning several years could not determine how many girls were murdered. In 2018, there were claims that two of the five girls were alive.

The latest incident also remains shrouded in mystery. Aaj News has compiled the following information from various sources.

Kolai-Palas was part of Kohistan district until 2017 when it was carved out as a separate administrative unit. The two girls who were seen in the viral photos are from the Barshriyal village of Kolai-Palas.

Kolai-Palas killing - a chronology

• Police officials said that pictures of two women along with men had gone viral on social media on November 22.
• Local media reported on November 24 that one of the two girls was murdered by her father and uncle on the orders of a local jirga.
• An FIR registered by the police said the initial report suggests that the pictures of two girls on Facebook went viral from the ID of a boy and the pictures of the women were also edited by Rehmat Shah and Aman Deedar.
• Police said that the body of the deceased was brought to Patan Hospital for post-mortem, while the other girl recorded her statement in the court of a senior civil judge and asked to go with her parents.
• The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) joined the investigation on Tuesday(28 November) into the case.
• Aaj News reported, the FIA cyber crime wing reached out to the main accused. In the picture with the murdered girl, a boy named Deedar also filed a complaint with the FIA about a fake Facebook account, saying that the accused created a fake Facebook account in his name.
• The accused used private mobile data to create the account. The suspects created fake Facebook accounts and photoshopped and uploaded pictures on social media.
• The FIA identified the suspects and provided the details to the police.
• Police are conducting raids to arrest the suspects and associates, but due to a lack of communication system in the village of Barshriyal, the police are facing difficulties.

• Police called it the latest victim of a so-called honour killing. Some relatives of the dead woman were among the suspects, police said.
• Prompt police action resulted in the father of the deceased being apprehended on time.

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Police released the initial report of the Kohistan incident

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• The caretaker chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Syed Irshad Hussain Shah, said he had ordered police to arrest those responsible.
• “We are investigating,” Khan said, adding that male relatives of the young woman were believed to be involved in the killing. The second woman had been returned to her family after a judge investigated her safety, he said.
• Public images of women are considered taboo in the area, Khan said.

Earlier, a similar case that took place in May 2012 in Palas Valley, Kohistan, involved the honour killing of up to five girls, of whom a video had emerged on the internet. The video featured a boy dancing while four girls clapped and sang along.

It is claimed that, when the footage became public, a tribal jirga was held shortly afterwards where it was decided that the participants as well as the boy who filmed the video should be killed.

Despite campaigns by rights groups and laws in the country, such killings are frequently carried out over perceived offenses such as elopement, fraternization with men outside marriage, or other violations of religious and cultural values on female modesty.

In Pakistan, hundreds of women fall prey to honor killings each year, which are committed by relatives claiming to be defending the honor of the family.