SARGODHA, July 12: Sixteen armed men abducted a girl from her uncle’s house in the Laluwali village, some 30km from here, on Monday night and took her to a deserted place where they criminally assaulted her.

The victim’s family said that 16 armed men, including Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Riaz, Zahoor Ahmed and Ahmed Ali, had raped the girl, Sonia, after kidnapping her from the house of her uncle, Noor Mohammad.

However, the Bhagtanwala police said that the girl had been raped only by Nawaz and the others had helped him.

It has been learnt that Sonia lived in Faisalabad and arrived at her uncle’s house in Laluwali only a few days ago. She was engaged to Nawaz, a cousin, when she was a child.

However, Nawaz harboured a grudge against her after she refused to marry him. He abducted and raped her with the help of his accomplices, most of whom are his relatives.

Police have registered a case under the Hadood Ordinance.

The girl’s family refused to allow this correspondent to contact the victim, apparently because police had prohibited them from contacting newsmen.