MULTAN, Feb 3: The Khanewal police arrested on Friday night the alleged main culprit involved in the reported gang-rape of a student of the Bahauddin Zakariya University.

The arrested student is said to be a class fellow of the victim.

Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi had taken notice of the incident, which reportedly occurred on Monday last in Kabirwala city of Khanewal district. He directed the area police to apprehend the culprits.

The arrested culprit is identified as Muhammad Asif, son of Sarwar Ali. Both the victim and Asif are reportedly enrolled with the Education department of the BZU and are residents of Kabirwala.

According to the police investigations, ‘S’ wanted to marry one Nadeem Javed while her parents were opposed to this match because the boy was jobless. Her parents wanted her to marry a cousin.

At some point, her parents initially succumbed to her will and a date for engagement ceremony was fixed. But, the girl’s family later changed its mind and the ceremony was cancelled. At this, Nadeem and ‘S’ lost contact as the former was said to be offended with the behaviour of her parents.

Her class fellow Asif enticed her on Jan 30 to visit a house in Islamabad locality of Kabirwala under the pretext of arranging her meeting with Nadeem. But, it appeared as a ploy to defile her. Four men, including Asif, raped her at gunpoint. The three others were identified as Rana Akram, Rana Asif (son of Abdul Sattar) and Ghulam Shabbir alias Laddu.

Later, her medical examination was conducted at the Kabirwala THQ hospital and rape was confirmed. However, according to the medical report, she was conscious when she was brought to the hospital after three to four hours of the incident. The police have recovered a dagger and a half-empty bottle of liquor from the scene of crime.

Initially, she accused only two persons — Shabbir and Akram — of raping her. However, on Friday she told the police that her class fellow had threatened her with dire consequences if she exposed his role.

When contacted, the Khanewal DPO said he had constituted three raiding teams to arrest the remaining accused. He said Nadeem Javed had come to him a month ago and was desperately looking for job so that he could convince the parents of the girl with whom he wanted to marry.