BAHAWALNAGAR: Madrassa police on Saturday finally booked seven people for gang rape of a minor orphan girl, five months after the incident, while during the period she was repeatedly assaulted by the suspects who blackmailed her and threatened to kill her younger brother.

According to the FIR, an orphan girl ‘M’ of Basti Odki Abdullah Shah was allegedly gang raped by two locals at gunpoint about 4-5 months ago when she was alone at her house when her mother was away working as a house maid.

The FIR said the two suspects threatened to kill ‘M’s only younger brother Ahmed if she told someone about the rape.

Police sources said the girl, however, had informed her mother about the incident who kept visiting Madressa police station for getting registered the complaint but because of some locally influential people she was turned away by police officials concerned.

Meanwhile, the two suspects were joined by another local in the henious crime and they would gang rape the girl whenever they found her alone.

Some three months ago, four other men of the same locality caught the suspects red handed while they were assaulting the girl in the fields and they too blackmailed and raped her. The FIR said as a result of the repeated rape the girl got pregnant.

The sources said some of the police officials pressurised M’s mother into taking the matter to panchayat (village jury).

The panchayat decided that the suspects would pay certain amount to M’s mother as compensation and she, along with her two children, leave the village. As per the decision, the girl’s family moved to Lahore.

However, the family returned to the village and again contacted the police for registration of a case against the suspects.

Finally, the district police officer took notice of the incident and on his orders Madrassa police registered an FIR against all the seven suspects under section 376 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Madrassa Station House Officer Azar Hussain did not reply to calls or text messages of this scribe.

District police spokesperson Saleem Ayaz admitted that M’s family had contacted the police for help but meanwhile, a local panchayat intervened and settled the issue on its own.

He said a case against the seven suspects was registered on the order of DPO Zafar Buzdar and three of them had been arrested, while raids were being conducted to nab the others

PARDONED: The family of a Kabaddi player, who was allegedly beaten to death two days ago by rival team players during a match over a petty issue at Haroonabad, has pardoned the alleged killers, police claimed.

As per police sources, a Kabaddi match was held at Chak 38/3R of Haroonabad on Friday between two teams of the area.

They said that during the match, the players of rival teams quarreled and started punching and slapping each other. During the fight, they said, one of the players, Akhtar Ali, suffered a fatal blow and died on the spot. Following the incident, the rival players fled the scene.

The deceased was later buried by his family without a postmortem examination.

Haroonabad police claimed the deceased’s family refused to file a complaint against the alleged killers as they had forgiven them on the request of some village elders.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2021