LAHORE, Aug 3: The two girls, who have been rescued from ‘illegal detention’ of their brother in Saidpur (Sabzazaar), are said to have been suffering from mental disorders.

“The prolonged alienation from the outside world and improper food might have created adverse effects on their mental and physical state,” said Dr Javed Shah, the Punjab Institute of Mental Health director emergency services, in his initial assessment.

He told Dawn that the three victims (another being the girls’ father), who are in Intensive Care Unit of the emergency ward, were being encouraged to speak and eat to bring them towards normal life.

He said the paramedical staff was looking after their general health which was also affected during their ‘forced’ detention.

The preliminary medical report of the three victims -- Riffat, 35, Nighat, 27 and their father Bao Nazir Ahmad -- would be finalised in a day or two, Dr Javed said, with an observation that the girls were avoiding eye-contact and have fear of their brother Qaiser.

“The medical report will include analysis of clinical psychologists and psychiatrists, personality analysis, IQ, family, social and medical history, and medicine intake,” he said.

To establish whether the victims suffered any mental disorder or they were forced to become mental patients, he said, Qaiser also needed to go through psychoanalysis. “In case, all members of the family are found mentally-challenged in previous medical history, it will be no offence,” he said.

About any improvement in the physical state of the girls, another official of the hospital told Dawn that Nighat was not speaking and was in a state of shock while her sister Riffat spoke a little. “I have to go to washroom. Help me sit. I will eat when Qaiser come,” the official quoted Riffat as having said.

He further said they were reluctant to take meals and fear reflected from their eyes. Quoting Babu Nazir, Dr Javed said: “I know a man who is our enemy, but no he is our friend. My son never treated us in a strict manner and he used to give us proper food.”

Meanwhile, the Sabzazar police could not trace Qaiser. SSP (Operations) Chaudhry Shafiq Ahmed told Dawn that arresting Qaiser or simply instituting a case against him would be hard on him, especially when taken in the backdrop of doctors’ apprehensions that the three victims might have been suffering from psychosis or schizophrenia.