Family of a man killed over fallen trees awaits justice

Gul Begum, a 33-year-old widow, is taking care of eight young girls after her husband, Inayat-ur-Rehman, was killed in a trivial dispute over a tree.

Last August, in a remote village in Charsadda, a severe storm had knocked over three large poplar trees. The trees fell between the adjoining farms of Nazeer and Asrar Khan. Both quickly claimed ownership. In order to resolve the dispute, a Jirga was called. Rehman was asked to mediate between the two parties. At one such gathering, the arguments became heated and Khan pulled out a gun, shooting dead Rehman and Nazeer.

A few hours later, Begum was handed over the bullet-ridden body of her husband. “I have eight children, who have become orphans,” Begum tells Geo.tv, holding her one-year-old in her lap, “No one has come to help me and my daughters. My husband was taken from us over a tree.”

It is not uncommon for people to commit murders over land or other valuables in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to Dr Jamil Ahmad Chitrali, director of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies. “There may have been many legal changes in the rest of Pakistan, but in parts of KP people still do not expect speedy resolution of their disputes,” says Chitrali, “which is why they often resort to revenge.”

Financially hard-pressed, Begum has since turned her small, one-bedroom house into a shop to sell beauty products.

It took a long time and a lot of convincing to have the police take the case seriously and register a First Information Report against Asrar and his friend Sartaj. In June, police finally caught up with the two men and arrested them. They are now behind bars, undergoing a trial at a local court in the Tangi Tehsil.

But the case could come to a screeching halt, if Begum doesn’t come up with her lawyer’s fee — Rs300,000. “Here people are killed over minor disputes, but justice is expensive. I don’t think I can afford to get justice.”