Flogging video fake: Taliban

PESHAWAR: The Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan has said the video in which a girl appears to be whipped is fake. Spokesman Muslim Khan told the media in Char Bagh Saturday that four minors beat the girl, not adult men. "The video is propoganda by the West and NGOs," he said, "to defame the peace deal." According to him, the incident took place seven months ago and the girl was punished for living in sin with her father-in-law. She was whipped 18 times by 10 to 12 year old boys. Her father-in-law was whipped 38 times, he maintained. The spokesman also brought forward four boys, who he said were the ones who whipped the girl. "According to the peace deal we cannot mete out punishments because the Qazi courts have not been formed yet. President Asif Zardari has ordered a swift investigation into the flogging of a teen girl in Swat and Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has ordered that the girl be produced in the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, outrage has poured in from across Pakistan and the world over the incident. In the undated video made on a mobile phone, a member of the Taliban is shown flogging a 17-year-old girl. "Hold her down tightly by the arms," the man beating her appears to say. "And move back so I can hit her better." The girl, who is lying face down and whose shirt appears to have been pulled up, screams. "Leave me," she cries. "Mere baap ki taubah [Even my forefathers repent]. I won't do it again." She also could have said, her father was present. When the flogging ends, the beater tells the man taking the girl away: "Take her into the room, pimp." OUTRAGE "You cannot condemn this enough," said Brig. (retd) Mehmood Shah, who was the secretary of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement that describes itself as a liberal and progressive party also strongly condemned the footage. "If you call up some political parties they will quote Surah Nur and say it is Islamic," lamented the party's Haider Abbas Rizvi, who added that he had no words to express his disgust and horror over what had happened. SAMAA's Tariq Waheed said it was not clear where exactly the girl is from but she appeared to be a local. Nothing like this has come to the front in Pakhtun culture. "Some people are also saying that this video is part of a conspiracy to defame the Taliban," he said.