MIANWALI, Jan 5: Three Afghan men, who had allegedly raped a Khattak girl of Chughlan village near the Kot Chandna refugee camp more than a month ago, have not yet been traced despite all efforts.

The chiefs of the Khattak tribe, politicians and district administration and even the visiting high-ranking government officers have stressed that the Afghan refugee camp be shifted from Kot Chandna to some other place.

District Nazim Humair Hayat Khan Rokhri has recommended to the Punjab governor that the camp should be shifted to the NWFP at the earliest. It is learnt that the camp administration has restricted the movement of the Afghan refugees. Some of them had flourishing cloth businesses at Kalabagh and other towns of the district, but they had to return to the camp after the incident.

According to sources inside the camp, the refugees are starving as they are not being provided rations or some other facility for subsistence. The camp administrators, including district administrator Mehr Mahmood Akhtar and coordinators - Gul Khan and Farooq Hashmi - claimed that the tribal chiefs of refugees had been fully cooperating with the law-enforcement agencies and handing over all the suspects.

Moreover, they said, the Afghans between 19 and 25 years, were coming before the camera so that the victim or her relatives could recognize the culprits. MNA Imran Khan, MPA Amanatullah, former MNA Obaidullah, revenue minister Gul Hameed Khan Rokhri, the commissioner for Afghan refugees and many other notables have gone to the house of the victim and assured her of early arrest of the culprits.

Reports said five young Afghans came to the Chughlan village adjacent to the refugee camp where a 12-year girl was collecting firewood and shepherding goats on the hills along with her aunts and younger cousin. Three of the Afghans took away the girl to another hill and allegedly raped her. The two men, carrying kalashnikovs, remained on a watch and humiliated the old women when they tried to raise hue and cry.

The victim was brought to the THQ hospital in Kalabagh where her medical was conducted. The report confirmed rape by the three after which Kalabagh police registered a case against them on Nov 27.

The girl's father belongs to a Pashto-speaking Khattak tribe and works as a daily-wager. She quit school after Class III, as was the custom of the area. The Khattaks are scattered all around the Salt Range without having access to basic facilities like water supply, power, telephone and roads.

After the incident, the tribe arranged an emergency meeting reportedly to exact revenge, but put off the plan on the assurance of law-enforcement agencies that it would arrest the culprits soon. They are still demanding that either the culprits be arrested or the camp shifted to some other place.