DERA GHAZI KHAN, Aug 3: Mukhtaran Mai, the Meerwala gang-rape victim, on Saturday told the anti-terrorism court that the conduct of the Panchayat chief was ‘siasi’ and ‘duniavi’.

Deposing as PW14, she was referring to the reported remarks of Faiz Muhammad Mastoi alias Faiza, the chief juror, which he made when she approached the Panchayat to seek pardon for the act of her brother.

She said their neighbours Abdul Khaliq and brothers suspected that her younger brother Abdul Shakoor had illicit relations with their sister, Salma. On June 22, Jamil, Punnu and Manzoor abducted Shakoor at noon when he was asleep under a shady tree just outside their house. They took him to a nearby sugar cane field and sodomized him.

She said her family started searching him on finding him missing. Soon they came to know that the Mastois had confined him in a room of their house along with Salma in a bid to cover their crime of sodomy. The matter was reported to the police who took Shakoor to the Jatoi police station without registering any case.

On the same day, the Mastois called a Panchayat. Maulvi Razzaq and Manzoor Jatoi were representing her Gujjar family while Faiza Mastoi, Ramzan Pachaar and Ghulam Farid were the arbitrators from the other side. Her elders, she said, proposed that if Shakoor had committed ‘ziadti’ (rape) then he be married to Salma and in exchange her hand be given to Abdul Khaliq.

She said Abdul Khaliq, Ramzan Pachaar and Ghulam Farid did not agree to the proposal and instead they demanded ‘a rape for a rape’. At this, arbitrators from her family side left the ‘akath’ (Panchayat). Soon after, Ramzan Pachaar and Ghulam Farid came to the small gathering of her family in a mosque. They said that Fiaza Mastoi wanted that if Shakoor’s sister came to the Panchayat to seek apology from the Mastois for the act of her brother the Gujjars would be pardoned.

On this assurance, her maternal uncle Sabir Hussain, father Ghulam Farid, Ghulam Nabi and Haji Altaf escorted her to the Panchayat. On her arrival, Abdul Khaliq caught her hand which she got released with a jerk. Here, Faiza Mastoi stated that the girl had come and now should be forgiven. But his statement was ‘siasi’ (political) and ‘duniavi’ (ostentatious).

Thereafter, Abdul Khaliq, Allah Ditta, Fayyaz Hussain and Ghulam Farid (all Mastois) dragged her to a room of accused Khaliq’s house situated nearby and raped her in turns.

She said she cried for help and made entreaties to her tormentors but neither anyone from the ‘akath’ had come to her rescue nor the perpetrators showed any mercy. She was later thrown out of the house half-naked with only a tore shirt on her body. The perpetrators later threw her remaining clothes on her.

The outlaws hurled threats that if anyone tried to report the case he would be murdered and due to this her family could not lodge the case till June 30. She said there were about 200 to 250 people present in the Panchayat (of Mastois). She said accused Aslam, Allah Ditta, Ghulam Rasool, Hazoor Bakhsh, Qasim, Khalil, Nazar Hussain and Ghulam Hussain were also present in the Panchayat.

Aslam and others were arrested by the police for being part of the Mastois’ Panchayat. But in the challan the police placed them in column two ‘for want of evidence’ against them. They along with the main accused were present in court on Saturday and the victim identified them.

When she completed her statement, the defence counsel — Malik Saleem, Yaqoob Khan and Yasser Ali Khosa — sought adjournment. The judge, therefore, adjourned the proceedings for Aug 5. The defence is likely to cross-examine her statement on the next date of hearing.

Earlier, when court assembled to restart hearing of the Meerwala case at about 10.30am, the defence resumed cross-examination of Sabir Hussain (PW13), maternal uncle of the victim.

The PW13 said his father Ghulam Fareed and brother Hazoor Bakhsh had expressed no objection to the Mastois’ demand that any of their women should come to the Panchayat to seek apology for the act of Shakoor. He said he did not disclose to Mukhtaran Mai that (some of the) Mastois were also demanding ‘a rape for a rape’.

He said she was a purdah-observing lady but she was not supposed to be clad in ‘burqa’ before the Panchayat because she was seeking pardon (this reflects the helplessness of a family seeking pardon according to the Balochi custom). He said when he and Mukhtaran appeared before the Panchayat he pronounced that here she was to seek pardon from the Mastois.

He said when the perpetrators were dragging her they (males of her family) could not rescue her because accused Abdul Khaliq was hurling threats with a pistol in his hand that any body tried to follow them would be killed. He said even then they tried to rescue her, but the gathering of 200 to 250 people had held them back. He said he had stated this fact to the police and the area magistrate. He admitted that he preferred his life to his honour.

The security arrangement in and outside the ATC court were beefed up from Saturday as the Meerwala case entered its crucial stage with the recording of the statement of Mukhtaran Mai. It is learnt that all the security personnel had been replaced.

The judge put off the decision till Monday on the prosecution request to drop three more witnesses — Ghulam Farid (father of the victim), Ghulam Nabi and Haji Manzoor — from the list of PWs. The prosecution had moved the application on Friday last.