HARIPUR, May 2: A local woman and her two daughters are reported to have been beaten up and insulted in public by six men. The victims, Sabira Bibi, wife of Niaz Hussain Shah, of Mohallah Sheranwala Gate, and her daughters levelled the allegation while talking to journalists at the office of her counsel Farid Khan Alizai here on Monday.

Accompanied by her husband, Sabira and her daughters, Shazia Bibi, 26, and Sadia Bibi, 17, said they had been attacked by an influential man who owned a plaza and his five accomplices on April 29 when they were placing a makeshift cabin near their house.

They said that the land where they were placing the cabin was, according to the revenue record, part of their house which had been rented out to their grandfather by the Auqaf department in the early sixties.

They said that they had started putting up the cabin near their house two months ago to supplement their income.

“The cabin built behind a newly-constructed plaza,” they said, adding that the owner, after failing to persuade them to vacate the space, got the kiosk removed by the municipal staff which declared it an encroachment.

But the municipal administration, they said, had to return the kiosk to them under a decision of the Abbottabad bench of the Peshawar High Court.

The women said that when they were placing the kiosk back at its previous place, the plaza owner and his five accomplices attacked them, torn their clothes and dragged them in the public, with all of them bleeding.

The women also accused police of siding with the accused and distorting the FIR they had lodged.

They said that they had moved an application to the district police officer (Haripur) seeking help for lodging a case in accordance with their statement.

They threatened to block the GT Road if the accused were not arrested and FIR was not lodged against them.

A report prepared by a lady doctor and showed by the Shah family confirmed that the women had been beaten.

When contacted, an official at the City police station confirmed the complaint had been lodged and said that the matter had been referred to the prosecution department for opinion.

The counsel for the women said that the offence was cognizable under section 354-A of the PPC.