LAYYAH: A 13-year-old girl along with her mother put herself in a cage on Monday outside the district press club in protest against what she said release of her ‘rapists’.

Reports said Hasina Bibi of Chak 150-TDA was allegedly kidnapped and raped by her relatives a few months back. She managed to return home and visited the police station for registration of a case.

On March 24, she along with her father Manzoor Ahmed came to the office of district police officer who asked Layyah Sadar police station for legal action.

On the complaint of the girl, Layyah Sadar police registered a case no 48/14 under sections 365-b/376 against Raheem Bakhsh, Mohammad Qasim, Bashir Husain and Hashim.

The police arrested Bashir and Qasim and later Sadar SHO Muhammad Afzal released them on the pressure of MNA Pir Saqlain Shah.

Hasina Bibi in the FIR said in May 2013 she was alone at her house when Raheem came and allegedly raped her at gunpoint. She said she didn’t tell her parents about the incident as Raheem threatened her with murder.

The girl in her statement said she turned pregnant and after two months in July 2013 Qasim, his wife Sakina Mai, Raheem and Bashir took her for abortion to Wahowa in Dera Ghazi Khan where she was gang-raped for three days.

She said the suspects took her thumb impressions on a white paper.

The girl said she gave birth to a baby girl in February 2014 and managed to return home in March.

When contacted, SHO Afzal said police took into custody Bashir and Qasim but the complainant did not produce any concrete evidence to prove her allegations.

“As a result we released the suspects on the request of MNA Pir Saqlain,” the SHO said and added that the suspects held out an undertaking to join the investigation.

District Police Officer Ghazi Sallahudin said both the released suspects had been taken into custody and the police were yet to complete the investigation.