Eight of the nine people suspected of torturing and illegally confining a teenage girl in Garahmat village of Daraban tehsil in Dera Ismail Khan have been remanded into police custody for three days.

The eight accused were presented on Wednesday before Judicial Magistrate Adam Khan who was informed that the police were still looking for one absconder.

They were handed over to the police on a three-day physical remand. Superintendent Police (SP) Saddar Ashfaq Khan is leading the inquiry committee conducting the investigations in the case.

Earlier, the girl’s family had complained that no action had been taken against the Chaudwan police station SHO, accusing the official of supporting the suspects and registering a concocted case against three of its members.

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. He accused them of stripping off her clothes before forcing her to run.

According to Sajid, 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 the FIR and later booked his family members on the complaint of a female relative of the suspects.

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

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