DI Khan: The police have arrested seven of the nine people suspected of torturing and illegally confining a teenage girl in Garahmat village of Daraban tehsil here.

The girl’s family had first insisted that the suspects paraded her naked in the area on Oct 27.

They however retracted the statement on Monday claiming that the girl was taken to suspect Sanaullah’s house, where nine people beat her up, tore her clothes up and kept her in illegal confinement.

The girl claimed that she had got bruises on arm and knee and that the suspects had dragged her inside the house.

There are unconfirmed reports about the girl’s family being pressured to retract the first statement.

The relevant Chaudwan police station registered two FIRs on Oct 27, first on the complaint of a female family member of the suspects and second on the girl’s.

In a statement issued here on Monday, regional police officer Syed Fida Hassan Shah said the police had arrested seven suspects, including brothers Shahjehan, Gulistan and Ramzan, Ikram, Sanaullah and brothers Nasir and Aslam, while the two others, including Sajawal and Saidu, were at large.

He claimed that he was supervising the investigation and had formed special teams for the arrest of the fugitives.

However, the girl’s family complained that no action had been taken against the Chaudwan police station SHO, who supported suspects and registered a concocted case against three of its members to pressure them to hush up the incident.

A brother of the girl, Sajid Khan, formally requested the provincial police officer to order a high-level inquiry into the incident and take strict action against the SHO.

In an application, he alleged that Sajawal and other suspects seized his sister on Oct 27 morning when she along with her three cousins went to a local pond to fetch water, and stripping her off before forcing her into running.

The man added that his sister later took refuge in a nearby house but the suspects dragged her out, beat her up and kept her in illegal confinement. He alleged that the SHO first delayed the registration of FIR on his complaint and later booked his family members on the complaint of a woman relative of the suspects.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2017