Then in August, six months after Meena disappeared, without
any warning, or even a phone call from the police, the women of
RAWA read devastating news in the Pakistani newspapers. Two
men, the articles said, had been stopped trying to drive across the
border from Afghanistan to Pakistan. Their car had been searched
and found to contain a large amount of explosives. They were arrested
and had confessed, perhaps under torture, that they had
killed three people: RAWA’s two missing male supporters and a
thirty-year-old woman named Meena.
To read that news item was horrifying beyond words for the
women of RAWA. Though they had asked the police to inform
them if anything was ever found out about Meena, no one from
the authorities came to talk to them. They did not know whether
to believe the newspapers. The articles did not say what target the
men had been planning to bomb. All the women knew was that if
the articles were true, Meena was dead.
Sultan and Hamayoun, the news items said, had led the police
to two bodies buried in the garden of an empty house in Quetta.
The address was a house that had once been rented by RAWA.
Shortly before Meena had disappeared, the lease had expired. The
members had moved out and left the place vacant.
To conceal the bodies, the killers had dug deep narrow, vertical
holes straight down into the earth. They had put Meena’s body in
one, and the body of one of her male companions in the other.
They had poured cement over the holes and placed planters on top
to hide the place as a flower bed.
Their appeals to the Pakistani judicial system to bring the murderers
to trial fell on deaf ears. Under the repressive Hudood laws,
which did not recognize the rights of women, Meena’s death was
not even considered a crime. Even though they had confessed, the
killers were not charged with Meena’s murder. Nor were they even
punished for killing Meena’s two male aides. Because they were
RAWA supporters, their murders were ignored. The killers were
held in prison on charges of possessing a car bomb, but not for
killing Meena and her two aides.
Everything changed in the spring of 2002. The U.S. war in Afghanistan
sent numerous Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters fleeing back
into Pakistan, pursued by U.S. forces. The U.S. government put
tremendous pressure on the government of Pakistan president Perez
Musharref to crack down on Islamic militants. World attention was
focused on the plight of Afghan women. The case of Meena’s killers,
which had languished, became an embarrassment to Pakistan. Acting
quickly, the Pakistani government hanged Ahmed Sultan and Mohammed
Hamayoun inside a prison in Baluchistan, Pakistan, on
May 4, 2002. With them died the knowledge of what happened in
Meena’s last hours.
جریان دستگیری و محاکمه قاتلان مینا در کتاب "مینا: زن قهرمان افغانستان" چنین آمده:
Then in August, six months after Meena disappeared, without
any warning, or even a phone call from the police, the women of
RAWA read devastating news in the Pakistani newspapers. Two
men, the articles said, had been stopped trying to drive across the
border from Afghanistan to Pakistan. Their car had been searched
and found to contain a large amount of explosives. They were arrested
and had confessed, perhaps under torture, that they had
killed three people: RAWA’s two missing male supporters and a
thirty-year-old woman named Meena.
To read that news item was horrifying beyond words for the
women of RAWA. Though they had asked the police to inform
them if anything was ever found out about Meena, no one from
the authorities came to talk to them. They did not know whether
to believe the newspapers. The articles did not say what target the
men had been planning to bomb. All the women knew was that if
the articles were true, Meena was dead.
Sultan and Hamayoun, the news items said, had led the police
to two bodies buried in the garden of an empty house in Quetta.
The address was a house that had once been rented by RAWA.
Shortly before Meena had disappeared, the lease had expired. The
members had moved out and left the place vacant.
To conceal the bodies, the killers had dug deep narrow, vertical
holes straight down into the earth. They had put Meena’s body in
one, and the body of one of her male companions in the other.
They had poured cement over the holes and placed planters on top
to hide the place as a flower bed.
Their appeals to the Pakistani judicial system to bring the murderers
to trial fell on deaf ears. Under the repressive Hudood laws,
which did not recognize the rights of women, Meena’s death was
not even considered a crime. Even though they had confessed, the
killers were not charged with Meena’s murder. Nor were they even
punished for killing Meena’s two male aides. Because they were
RAWA supporters, their murders were ignored. The killers were
held in prison on charges of possessing a car bomb, but not for
killing Meena and her two aides.
Everything changed in the spring of 2002. The U.S. war in Afghanistan
sent numerous Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters fleeing back
into Pakistan, pursued by U.S. forces. The U.S. government put
tremendous pressure on the government of Pakistan president Perez
Musharref to crack down on Islamic militants. World attention was
focused on the plight of Afghan women. The case of Meena’s killers,
which had languished, became an embarrassment to Pakistan. Acting
quickly, the Pakistani government hanged Ahmed Sultan and Mohammed
Hamayoun inside a prison in Baluchistan, Pakistan, on
May 4, 2002. With them died the knowledge of what happened in
Meena’s last hours.
آنلاین : اعلامیه راوا در مورد اعدام قاتلان مینا