MULTAN, Sept 25: Lodhran police have not so far recovered a girl abducted last month by some Baloch clansmen after her brother married a Balochi girl against the will of latter’s parents.

Dozens of Baloch tribesmen had allegedly attacked the house of Ghulam Hussain Arain in Chak 55-M in the limits of Galeywal police station on Aug 7 last. Armed assailants thrashed inmates, including Ghulam Hussain, his wife Zohraan Mai, sons Rafiq and Sharif and kidnapped his daughter Kauser and daughter-in-law Kauser Mai.

After a love affair, Rafiq had contracted court marriage with Kauser Mai, the daughter of Pir Bakhsh Baloch, on May 30, 2002. The family of Kauser Mai was opposed to the bond for Rafiq’s being non-Baloch.

To avoid the wrath of Mai’s family, the couple shifted to somewhere else but returned the day the Baloch tribesmen attacked their house. Among the alleged attackers were three brothers of Kauser Mai — Haji Muhammad, Rustam and Afzal.

The area people said the couple returned after Ghulam Hussain had given the possession of Rafiq’s three acres of agriculture land to the Balochs as a compensation to reach a patch-up.

The land did not satisfy the Balochs who asked for ‘a girl for a girl’. Their demand was rejected by the Arains as their elder daughter, Kauser, had already been married to a relative, Ramzan, some seven years ago as part of a ‘watta-satta’ deal. Ramzan’s sister was in return married to Ghulam Hussain’s son Sharif. However, the formal ‘rukhsati’ of Kauser had yet to be executed.

The area people said that after abducting Kauser, the Balochs fastened her at the back of a tractor and took her to their village in a procession hurling threats and resorting to aerial firing. Since then she was in the custody of the Balochs who were allegedly subjecting her to criminal assault every day.

Rafiq’s wife Kauser Mai who was also abducted, claimed that she managed to escape from the captivity on Sept 13 last. In a statement recorded before a judicial magistrate, she alleged that some seven people — Ameer Khan, Allah Ditta, Haji Korro, Aslam, Allah Bakhsh and Sharif Baloch had gang-raped her time and again during her captivity.

Rafiq had lodged an FIR with the Galeywal police station under sections 324, 365, 452, 148 and 149 PPC against some 20 nominated accused. But, the Arain family alleged that the conduct of the SHO was biased from the day one which was also reflective in the contents of the FIR.

Recording the cause of the Balochs’ attack, the police quoted complainant Rafiq as saying “because I married to their sister Kauser Mai after kidnapping her”.

The Balochs allegedly kept on changing the place of the captivity of Rafiq’s sister. At some places, the neighbours, after hearing her cries, did inform the police. But the police allegedly delayed the action, giving the captors opportunity to flee.

When contacted, SHO Rana Farooq refuted the allegation that he was supporting the culprits. He said the police had arrested four nominated accused while six others had secured pre-arrest bails and hoped that rest of the nominated accused would soon get the pre-arrest bail.

When asked about the attack and kidnapping of two women, the SHO said that this was a ‘logical’ outcome of what Rafiq had done with the Balochs. “You know in our society things like love marriage cannot be accepted,” he added.

He opined that the assailants in fact wanted to take away Rafiq’s wife but when they did not find her, they kidnapped her sister-in-law Kauser. He contradicted reports that Rafiq’s wife was also kidnapped and gang-raped. “Her brothers would have killed her had they captured her,” he asserted.

On his failure to recover Rafiq’s sister, the SHO said she had married willingly Rustam (the brother of her sister-in-law and one of the accused) and that he had a copy of their nikahnama. “This will also be produced when the time comes,” was the answer of the SHO when asked whether he himself met Kauser and had recorded her statement.

When contacted, Lodhran DPO Farooq Sajid said he needed some time to check with the Galeywal police station about the latest development in the case. After that whenever the DPO was contacted, his telephone operator came out with the same reply that ‘sahib’ was saying his prayers.

Reports from the area are that the captors of Kauser had taken her to some private clinics and then to some quacks owing to her deteriorating condition.