Chief judge demands flogging information

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, April 6 (UPI) -- Pakistan's chief justice says he wants a detailed report from local government officials about the public flogging of a 17-year-old girl.

An amateur video of the whipping of the veiled girl in the country's North West Frontier province was broadcast on television last week, prompting an outraged reaction.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry Sunday ordered provincial officials to explain what happened and to take the woman in the video to a court hearing, Pakistan's English language newspaper Dawn reported.

Chaudhry ordered government and regional officials from North West Frontier province to "submit (a) report … to the registrar of this court. The matter requires a detailed probe to locate place of (the) incident, application of law for those involved and if (the) sentence of flogging was awarded lawfully or unlawfully."

The video showed two men pinning the girl down while a bearded man in a turban flogged her 34 times with a whip, Dawn said. Swat Valley residents reported the girl was flogged because of an alleged illicit relationship with a man whom she was forced to marry.