Naushahro Feroz Teen girl Raped & murdered Highlights Illegal Jirga Role:
NAUSHAHRO FEROZ: A devastating incident in Mohabbat Dero, Naushahro Feroz, has brought to light the brutal rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl, Faiza, alongside the deeply alarming role of a local jirga in the events leading to her death. This tragic case, reported to local police on the night of July 27, 2025, underscores the persistent challenge of illegal parallel justice systems in Pakistan’s rural areas.
According to family members, Faiza had been raped by close relatives two weeks prior to her death. Instead of approaching formal law enforcement, the family, in a deeply regrettable decision, took the matter to a local influential landlord for a jirga to decide the fate. The jirga’s subsequent “ruling” and the mysterious circumstances of Faiza’s death have drawn widespread condemnation and renewed calls for accountability against such extra-legal bodies.
The Jirga’s Controversial Ruling
Local influential Azizullah Dahraj has confessed to convening a jirga to resolve the initial rape allegation. He stated that the victim’s relatives were his servants and had insisted he decide the matter. In a shocking display of illegal authority, Dahraj claimed the jirga imposed a Rs 4 lac fine on the culprits’ family. More disturbingly, he decreed that two girls from the culprits’ family be given to the victim’s family as compensation, and that Faiza herself “should be married with the accused” – a practice known as ‘vani’ or ‘swara’, widely condemned and illegal.
This “justice” dispensed by the jirga stands in stark contrast to Pakistan’s legal framework. Landmark judgments by the Sindh High Court (2004) and the Supreme Court of Pakistan (2006, 2017, 2019) have explicitly declared jirgas and panchayats as illegal and unconstitutional, particularly when they usurp the jurisdiction of formal courts.3 Such bodies often violate fundamental human rights, especially those of women, by excluding them from proceedings and issuing rulings that contravene due process and constitutional protections.
Mysterious Death and Conflicting Accounts
The family members informed the police that they had entrusted Faiza to the local influential’s protection. However, they allege that Faiza was kidnapped by the culprits near the landlord’s home, subsequently killed, her body abandoned, and the culprits fled.
In a contradictory statement, Azizullah Dahraj denied that the girl was entrusted to him for protection, stating, “but she used to visit us.” He further disavowed knowledge of how she died, claiming, “I don’t know she has herself taken the poison or been poisoned by someone else.”
Police have shifted the deceased’s body to Kandiaro hospital for a post-mortem examination. A preliminary medical report suggests a tragic cause of death: the girl had died of a large dose of sleeping pills. Authorities have stated that a formal case will be registered following the complete post-mortem report, crucial for determining the official cause of death and moving forward with investigations.
This heinous crime and the jirga’s shocking involvement highlight a dire need for stringent enforcement of existing laws against illegal jirgas and for ensuring that all citizens, especially vulnerable women and children, have access to formal justice channels. The community and authorities must work to dismantle these parallel systems that perpetuate violence and injustice in the guise of traditional dispute resolution.
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