July 10, 2008	Thursday	Rajab 6, 1429

GUJRANWALA, July 9: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has taken notice of gang-rape with a 17-year-old girl of Mohallah Faisalabad and has called for a report from Gujranwala DIG Zulfiqar Ahmad Cheema on Wednesday.

In his report, the DIG has confirmed that the girl (S) had been raped and two out of four suspects, Zeeshan and Atif, had been arrested while the police were conducting raids to arrest the remaining two, including prime suspect Muneeb.

Girl’s boyfriend Muneeb had abducted her on June 23 and later he along with three accomplices raped her for six days at different places.

The victim girl told Dawn that one of her classmates introduced her to Muneeb around eight months ago and they had an affair. On June 23, Muneeb called her near a hotel and asked her to marry him. She said Muneeb and his three friends, including hotel manager Zeeshan, took her to a hotel room where they raped her for three days. On June 25, they took her to a Murree hotel where they raped her for another three days.

On her return to Gujranwala on June 28, she said, her brothers Raza and Usman recovered her from Satellite Town and caught the rapists. They took the rapists to DC Colony and thrashed them. They also beat up an advocate who had asked her brothers as to why they were beating the boys (rapists). The advocate filed a case against her brothers who were still behind bars in the Civil Lines police station, she said.

According to sources, the victim in her statement under Section 161 CrPC had stated that four persons had raped her for six days.

Zeeshan, one of the arrested culprits, told Dawn that ‘S’ had booked a room under a fictitious name in his hotel. He said when he checked her out, she requested him to take her to Murree where Muneeb would marry her.

“It was my mistake that I took her to Murree with my friend, Atif, for the sake of humanity, for which I’m paying now,” he said.

Atif said when the girl’s boyfriend did not reach Murree, he asked her to return to home which she denied because her stepmother had been maltreating her. On her request, he said, he took her to a parlour in Satellite Town in Gujranwala where her brothers thrashed them and later handed them over to Dhullay police.

Girl’s father Mohhiyuddin lodged a complaint with the police on July 1 that Muneeb, Atif, Zeeshan and an unidentified person abducted her daughter on June 23. The Dhullay police arrested Atif and Zeeshan who are on a three-day physical remand. He told Dawn the culprits had raped her daughter, but he had not mentioned the charge in the FIR only to preserve his ‘honour’.

He said the police were not arresting Muneeb because he belonged to a rich family. He alleged the Muneeb’s family was threatening him with dire consequences if he did not stop pursuing the case.