AP Photo

Controversy has raged in recent days over whether the video of a 17-year-old girl being flogged by the Taliban, released last April, was real or staged. The initial news report published in an English-language daily alleged that Ethnomedia, the Islamabad-based NGO that released the video, paid a “local” half a million rupees to have the video produced.

The report also claimed that the girl shown in the video, which was so instrumental in galvanising public outcry against the Taliban, also received a payment of Rs100,000. The matter was even taken up by Pakistan’s Senate last month. In a debate held on the issue, Jamaat-i-Islami Senator Khursheed Ahmed demanded action against the NGO which he accused of having “defamed Islam and the nation”.