The Pakistani supreme court yesterday ordered an inquiry into the public flogging of a teenage girl by the Taleban which has provoked widespread outrage in the country.

Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, the chief justice, ordered the local radical administration to bring the victim to court after several Pakistani television channels aired footage showing a 17-year-old girl being beaten in front of a crowd.

The incident illustrated growing violence against women in the north-western Swat valley which is ruled by radical Islamists.

The grainy footage, apparently recorded with a mobile phone camera, showed a man in a black turban holding the girl’s feet while another man gripped her head and a third man hit her with a leather strap as she cried out in pain.

“For God sake stop it . . .Hang on, hang on,” the girl, wearing a red shirt, begged in Pashtu as the bearded man beat her.

“I swear by my father, I will not do it again,” she cried throughout her ordeal. After the punishment, she was dragged back to her house.

The married girl was accused of stepping out of her house with her father-in-law, an act the Taleban describes as un-Islamic. The Taleban allows women out on the street only when they are accompanied by their husbands.

Human rights activists said the incident occurred in the Kabal district around two weeks ago after a peace deal virtually ceded control of the valley to Taleban leaders.

Under the agreement signed in February, the government has agreed to enforce Islamic Sharia laws there.

Yousuf Raza Gilani, the prime minister, said he has ordered an investigation into the incident, but said the government would not cancel the peace accord.

Muslim Khan, a spokesman for the Taleban in Swat confirmed the incident had happened, insisting that the punishment was in accordance with Islamic Sharia rule. “A woman can only go out with her husband, “ Mr Khan said in an interview with a private television channel. He said women who did not follow Islamic tenets deserved to be killed.

Asma Jahngir, chair of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission said it was not the first such incident. “There has been many incidents where women have been killed by Taleban on allegations of being wayward,” she said, calling for a nationwide protest against the action tomorrow. “The nation should stand up against militant brutalities.”

According to local residents the Taleban shot dead Bakht Zeba, a female local councillor, a few months ago for criticising the radical Islamist rulers for closing down a girls’ school. Ms Jahangir said there have also been instances where women were punished for refusing to marry a member of the Taleban.

Most of Pakistan’s 160 million people are conservative but moderate Muslims and many of them are dismayed by such brutal actions carried out by Taleban. Critics said the peace deal had only embolden the militants who aim to take over the whole of north-western Pakistan.

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