MUZAFFARGARH: Police arrested three kidnappers of a family on Tuesday who allegedly held them hostage, beat and stripped the woman naked on Monday.

The incident took place in Alipur when the family riding a motorcycle was held hostage by a mob of 15 people. They took them to an unidentified place where they thrashed the woman and stripped her naked. Later, they threw her along roadside and took her husband to an unidentified place.

The woman alleged the kidnappers raped her too. The police took her to a hospital for medical examination.

The Alipur police took action and rescued the man.

Sources said the son of the woman eloped with Kausar Bibi. In revenge, the family of Kausar Bibi kidnapped the woman and her husband.

District Police Officer Muhammad Hassan Iqbal said the three prime suspects who held a panchayat had been arrested while 12 others would be behind bars soon.

Also, on Tuesday, the police arrested three retailers for looting cash from the women at the Ehsas Kafalat programme centre and recovered thousands from them.

On complaints by women, the deputy commissioner asked Alipur Assistant Commissioner Mubeen Ahsan to take action.

The AC raided the centre and got three retailers arrested who were taking Rs1,000 from each woman for their transaction.

Station House Officer Mohammad Rizwan said that after complaints from females, he deployed police officials at each centre.

The issue has already been highlighted by PPP MNA Malik Ghulam Raza Rabbani Khar, who alleged that he had raised the issue of the exploitation of the BISP beneficiaries in the assembly and in a meeting with programme head Sania Nishtar.

He said that in his constituency, many families had been ignored in the Ehsas Kafalat programme. DROWNS: A 60-year-old man fell into a fish farm and drowned in Shahjamal on Tuesday.

Ghulam Rasool, 60, was walking along the fish farm near Shahjamal, 25 kilometres from the city area, when he slipped into the pond and drowned.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2021