KARACHI, Jan 31: Six men have been arrested on a charge of raping a teenaged girl and forcing her to parade naked through her village near Ubaro because one of her relatives had eloped with a young woman from the men’s family.

Police said the girl's father had filed a complaint on Saturday in Ubaro town, 530kms from Karachi, saying a group of 11 men had kidnapped his daughter, two of them raped her and the others then forced her to parade naked through Habib Labalo village.

The father told police the men were furious because the girl's cousin had eloped with and married a young woman from their family.

“Some villagers have said the girl was raped and her clothes torn off,” investigating police officer Aftab Farooqi told journalists.

“They also claim she was forced to walk half naked in the village streets before some older woman covered her with a blanket,” he said.

The girl is in hospital in Ubaro, police said.

Police are awaiting a medical report to confirm the 16-year-old had been raped.

Another police official said certain influential people were pressing the girl's father to drop his complaint. The case brings to mind the attack on Mukhtaran Mai in 2002.

She was gang-raped on the orders of a village council near Muzaffargarh as punishment because her brother had had a relationship with a young woman without the approval of her family.—Agencies