ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 6 (UPI) -- A hearing into a Pakistani tribal council's ruling to execute four girls for defying customs was recessed until the girls are brought to court, officials said.
The four girls, condemned to death by a Kohistan jirga for singing and dancing with men during a wedding party, were to be flown to a Supreme Court hearing Wednesday in Islamabad, The Express Tribune reported. The hearing before a three-judge panel was delayed until the girls' arrival.
News accounts about the fate of the four girls are varied, with one report indicating they were executed by family members for breaking tribal customs, while another account indicating they were in hiding for safe-keeping.
The four girls, along with two men, were declared "ghul" -- fornicators -- after they allegedly were videoed singing and dancing together at a wedding party in the remote village, the Tribune said.
Before the hearing was recessed, officials from Kohistan's district administration told the court they had failed to contact the girls despite several times, the Tribune said. However, the officials said the girls were alive.
The two men accused of filming the video and uploading it on the Internet -- Bin Yasir and Gul Nazar -- also appeared before the court. A brother of the two accused men said the four girls seen on the video, along with another girl, were killed.
However, local police and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government officials have denied an execution occurred, Geo News reported. Interior Minister Rehman Malik's office also assured the court that the girls were alive.
Asked about the contradictory reports about the girls' well-being, the court was told that an investigation into the video indicated it had been forged.
