PESHAWAR, June 2: The brother and uncle of a rape victim of the Pir Sabaaq area of Nowshera, have denied that their family had empowered any so-called jirga to decide about the shameful incident of May 2.

Speaking at a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday, Fazal Daud, the brother, and Abdul Sattar, the uncle of the victim, alleged that law-enforcement agencies had failed to arrest the five remaining culprits involved in the rape.

NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani and senior minister Sirajul Haq had ordered the local police to arrest the culprits. But the victim's family was being pressurised to withdraw the case and reach a settlement with the culprits, they added.

They alleged that Said Faqir, Mohammad Faqir, Arshid, Rasheed, Amjid and Saeed had entered the house of the victim on May 2, disgraced her and fled. The police had registered an FIR on May 8 in order to provide some sort of legal relief to the culprits, but had not arrested them so for, they said.

The culprits had organized a 12-member jirga comprising Ghulam Sarwar, their close relative, Sherzada Khan of Risalpur, Dilaram Khan of Nowshera Kalan, Nazir Khan of Kheshgi, Amir Khan of Gulabad, Mardan; Shamsur Rehman of Khwaja Rashkai, Israr Din, a councillor of Ghala Dher, Mir Aslam Khan of Azizabad Pir Sabaq and four others.

The jirga had asked them (the aggrieved party) to withdraw the charges in return for a payment of Rs150,000, the fine imposed by the jirga on the culprits. The so-called jirga, they said, had also decided that if the aggrieved party turned down the decision, it would have to pay Rs200,000 as fine to the jirga.

Abdul Sattar said he had asked Shamsur Rehman, a jirga member, as to why they were making a unilateral decision and not asking anything from the aggrieved party. Mr Rehman shouted at him and closed the door, he added. The culprits, they said, were powerful and influential people and were trying, through a hand-picked jirga, to hush up the matter.

Amir Hamza, a local leader of Jamaat-i-Islami, was accused of extending support to the culprits against a poor girl, they alleged. They said that Mohammad Faqir was also involved in a similar shameful act, in which he had disgraced a girl and forced the victim's family to move out of the village. -Bureau