PESHAWAR, March 24: Four people arrested on charges of kidnapping a schoolgirl were remanded into police custody for two days by a local court on Saturday.

The court of judicial magistrate Abdul Hassan Mohmand directed the investigation officer to produce the four accused again on March 26.

The accused -- Gul Zameer, Irshad Ali, Fazal Subhan and Bilal Hussain -- were arrested on Friday on charges of kidnapping a girl in Gulshan Colony on Thursday night.

The victim, a student of ninth class, was returning home along with her brother and mother when the accused forcibly took her away near Gulshan Colony on G. T. Road.

When her brother resisted he was hit by the vehicle being driven by the accused leaving him injured.

The police had booked the accused under section 365-B of the Pakistan Penal Code, a section dealing with kidnapping a woman to compel for marriage or for illicit relation.

The section was previously part of the Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, but through the Women Protection Act it was incorporated in the PPC in November last.

The police did not arrange for medical examination of the girl for ascertaining whether any physical harm was inflicted on her or not.

On Friday, officials of the Chamkani police station and the superintendent of police concerned addressed a press conference.

During the press conference, the accused told journalists that they were drunk and a call girl was present with them in their vehicle.

They claimed that the call girl told them that the girl, who was passing by along with her family, was also her friend following which they forcibly took her away.

They said that when they came to know that the girl belonged to a noble family they dropped her near Ring Road without inflicting any harm.