PESHAWAR, April 6: Police have referred to an anti-terrorism court the case of stripping a woman of her clothes in public. The incident had occurred in Urmer Payan , a village on the outskirts of Peshawar, on Feb 24. Three accused, including the prime suspect Niaz Bacha, have been arrested. The fourth one, Pervez Khan, has been absconding.

Sources said that on the orders of the chief of capital city police, Tanveerul Haq Sipra, the police had incorporated section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, in the FIR registered on Feb 25 at the Urmer police station. A police official said the order was given by Mr Sipra keeping in view the nature and sensitivity of the offence.

Initially, complainant Talaj Bibi had only said in the FIR that the accused had beaten her up and tried to molest her when she visited Niaz Bacha's residence to wish his family on the birth of a daughter.

The FIR was registered under section 5, 6, 11 and 18 of the Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, 1979, read with section 354 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Later, the complainant's family alleged that she had been stripped of her clothes and paraded in the streets of Ghazikhel, the locality in the village where Niaz Bacha lived.

On March 13, the complainant recorded her statement before the court of a judicial magistrate narrating the whole incident. She said that in the presence of her mother and brothers she could not give certain details of the incident at the time of the lodging of the FIR.

After her statement, section 354-A of the PPC was included in the FIR which carries death penalty for the offence of striping a woman and exposing her to public view.

The prosecution said Niaz Bacha believed that Muzaffar Khan, brother of the complainant, had sexually assaulted his wife when he himself was in Saudi Arabia in connection with his job.

Niaz Bacha has been denying that the incident ever occurred. He informed a fact-finding team of various organizations that his brother, Mudassar, had only removed burqa and dupatta of the complainant and that too inside the residence and not outside.