ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN, AND ISTANBUL, TURKEY — Face down before a crowd, the teenage girl shrieks and writhes, begging for mercy. But the three masked men holding her down merely tighten their grip while a fourth man whips her again and again.
The video of a 17-year-old girl being publicly flogged by the Pakistani Taliban in the Swat Valley has galvanized the nation, drawing protests from human rights groups, denunciations from the central government and expressions of revulsion from many Pakistanis.
The video, shot this year, surfaced Friday on Pakistani television stations and the Internet.
Reports of abusive acts by the Pakistani Taliban have filtered out of the northwestern valley for months, but such brutal scenes are rarely captured on camera and publicly aired.
"This is intolerable," prominent human rights activist Asma Jahangir told journalists in the eastern city of Lahore.
Jahangir said the girl was believed to have been punished after refusing to marry a Taliban commander in the Swat Valley, where the government in February struck a truce with Islamic militants to stem violence. The militants then accused her of immoral behavior and ordered 34 lashes, Pakistani news reports said.
The video, shot with a cellphone, initially shows the girl, clad in an all-enveloping black burka, being held by men while another begins striking her. She can be heard shouting for help in the Pashto language, spoken by most people in Swat. She is then dragged to another location, held down and flogged. Several dozen people can be seen watching.
"For God's sake, please stop, stop it," the girl pleads as the whip falls. "I am dying."
Off-camera, another militant gives orders: "Hold her feet tightly. Lift her burka a bit."
A Taliban spokesman, Muslim Khan, defended the public lashing, saying the girl had engaged in immoral behavior, but did not specify. "It happened two months ago, when we were at war with the government," he told reporters in Swat. But area residents said the incident had taken place two weeks ago in the village of Kala Kalae.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gillani condemned the flogging and pledged an investigation. The government's former information minister, Sherry Rehman, requested a special session of parliament to discuss the incident.
