SARGODHA, Jan 27: A woman and her three daughters were raped by six armed men in the presence of two male members of the family at Thathi Kalan village on Monday night.

Reports reaching here said a midwife resided at the village along with her mother, two teenaged sisters and as many brothers. All the members of the family were asleep at their house when six armed men came there and roped the two brothers. Then they raped all the females at home till they fell unconscious, and fled after committing crime.

It is learnt that a police team reached there quite late and started questioning victims. The police registered a case under the hudood ordinance only after the people of the area took to streets and threatened to encircle the police station.

One of the girls later identified the suspects as Gulzar, Zafar, Saleem, Amanullah and Muhammad Bakhsh. However, police have yet to arrest the suspects, who reportedly hail from an influential family.

Violence against women is increasing day by day here, as the police have failed to curb crime. About three moths ago a woman of the same locality was raped and her head shaved off. Despite the orders of a high court, the police exonerated the suspects from crime.

Not far back a lady councillor was made naked allegedly by Kalyar family and a case was registered against the latter, but police kept insisting that the allegations were baseless.

DIG police Chaudhry Asif Nawaz Warraich told newsmen the other day that the lady councillor's case was baseless, as she was not paraded in her birthday suit publicly.

The DIG further said such cases should be reported with due care and conscious investigation. Answering a question posed by this correspondent, the DIG said the councillor had politicized this issue.