July 4, 2002	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 22,1423

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MULTAN, July 3: The Muzaffargarh police have so far been unable to arrest any of the culprits involved in the Meerwala gang-rape case, including four rapists and three members of a Jirga who ordered the gang-rape of a teenage girl on June 22.

Talking to Dawn, the district police officer, Rao Farman Ali, said four teams had been constituted to apprehend the culprits. He said raids were conducted on all possible hideouts of the accused persons but no one could be arrested so far.

He said the police teams also raided the residences of the relatives of the culprits in the neighbouring Alipur tehsil but their houses were found locked. Similarly, a team had been dispatched to Fazilpur area of the Rajanpur district on the possibility that the culprits might have taken refuge there with their Mastoi relatives.

The DIG of Dera Ghazi Khan range, Asif Nawaz, told Dawn that the sub-divisional police officer of the Jatoi tehsil had been given 24 hours to ensure arrest of all the culprits, or else face action under the Removal from Services Ordinance.

The DIG said the case would be registered under the Anti-terrorist Act, 1997, at a special court.

To a question, he said the members of the Jirga would be tried for abetment under Section 109 of PPC. He said abetters usually escaped punishment due to lack of evidence but in the present case there was ample evidence available against them.

Meanwhile, provincial law minister Rana Ijaz visited Meerwala on Wednesday and met the victim family and recorded their statement including that of the victim girl.

The minister could not be contacted. However, Muzaffargarh DPO Rao Farman Ali told newsmen that the minister found no act of negligence on the part of the DPO, district Nazim or the Jatoi tehsil SDPO. He said the minister observed when nobody had brought the matter to the knowledge of these officials how could they be held responsible.

He said the minister had come to know that the victim family did not visit the police station for at least a week after the incident due to fear of the culprits.

However, sources said the matter was in the knowledge of the local police right from the first day.

The sources said victim’s father “G” had visited the Jatoi police station on June 22 to seek recovery of his son Shakoor who was in the custody of Mastois.

The police raided the house of Imam Bakhsh Mastoi and recovered Shakoor in an injured condition. Mastois alleged that had they caught the boy in an objectionable condition with the daughter of Imam Bakhsh Mastoi.

Shakoor was taken to the police station, while the Mastois convened a Jirga to sort out the issue. The Jirga consisted of six members with three members representing each side. About 300 people of the village also gathered to witness the proceedings.

The Jirga members representing the Mastois insisted that the sister of Shakoor should be subjected to gang-rape to console the Mastois for their insult. At this, the Jirga members from the Shakoor side walked out in protest.

Shakoor’s maternal uncle brought the girl before the Jirga telling her that she only had to seek public apology for the “act” of her brother. However, she was gang-raped by four people, including Abdul Khaliq, the son of Imam Bakhsh.

Later, one of the Jirga members, Ramzan, came to the Jatoi police station and told the officials that they had settled the issue through a Jirga, therefore, the boy could now be released. The police set free Shakoor.

This is the fact which both the DG Khan range DIG and the Muzaffargarh DPO admitted while talking to Dawn.

The police did not take any action despite the fact that Shakoor had told them that he was criminally assaulted by Manzoor, Pannu and Javed of the Mastoi clan.

Medical officer of the Rural Health Centre, Jatoi Dr Afzal carried out the medical examination of Shakoor on the direction of provincial law minister to ascertain whether he was sodomised and that he was potent to do sexual act. It is learnt that the medical report is positive on both counts.

PPI adds: Police arrested nine people in connection with the Meerwala gang-rape case from Rampur.

They are Ghulam Hussain (Haryo), his son Khalil Ahmed, Mohamamd Aslam, Hafiz Nazar Hussain, Hazoor Bakhsh, Allah Ditta, Hafiz Rasul Bakhsh and Qasim of Bet Rampur and Allah Divaya Pachar of Jatoi northern.

The arrested people said they were not aware of such incident, nor did they belong to that area. Police raided their village and picked up nine people.

STAFF TRANSFERRED: The entire staff of the Jatoi police station has been transferred to other stations for negligence of duty, while SHO Nazir Bubbar and ASI Iqbal Khan has been suspended.