07 January 2005	Friday	25 Ziqa'ad 1425

PESHAWAR, Jan 6: A woman councillor, allegedly humiliated by some outlaws in Nowshera district, on Thursday sought justice from the Peshawar High Court.

Addressing a press conference here, Ms Kulsoom accused some people of disgracing her in Pir Pai village. However, she said, nobody could dare challenge their criminal act.

"They were arrested thrice, but were soon granted bail," she said and asked the PHC chief justice to take notice of her case and order a probe to find out why those people released on bail.

She claimed that she had also talked to Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leaders, including Qazi Hussain Ahmad and Sirajul Haq, on the issue, but had received no help. The councillor said her neighbour Ms Robina had complained in January 2004 that a man had forcibly entered her house in the night and molested her. The councillor reported the incident to the father of the man and requested him to keep his son under check.

She said the complaint infuriated the man and on May 6, 2004, he with his cousins, carrying Kalashnikovs, entered her house. On hearing their screams, Robina came to her house and the accused took them to his house at gunpoint.

The councillor claimed that many people had seen them on their way, but no one dared stop the criminals. "In his house the man and others stripped us and wrote their names on our bodies. They also filmed us in the nude and threatened to make it public if we did not pay Rs30,000," she said.

Ms Kalsoom said the man was arrested after she had registered an FIR at police station Azakhel and addressed a press conference, but after three days the court released him on bail.

The councillor said that due to fear, her whole family had shifted to Islamabad where her husband was a driver. But when they returned after a few months, the family of the accused started pressurising them for a compromise.

On Sept 5, 2004, they again entered her house and threatened to kill the whole family if they would not settle the matter. "It is due to the same fear that I arranged marriage of my 14-year-old daughter in Islamabad and have engaged my minor daughter to a boy as those people could enter my house anytime and disgrace my daughters as well," Ms Kalsoom, who is mother of eight children, stated.

The police again arrested the main accused and his three accomplices, but they were released on bail. A few days later, she said, one of the accomplices was arrested on the charge of carrying weapons, but once again he was granted bail.