MULTAN, May 16: The thrust of the ongoing police investigation into the gang-rape of two gypsy singers seems to establish that the perpetrators were not the policemen.

The Multan DPO has constituted four investigation teams, each headed by a senior police officer, but none of them has so far made any headway to identify the six accused policemen.

However, the police sleuths are allegedly cobbling 'evidences' to establish that the rapists were some civilians. It may be recalled that 'S' and 'T' along with their fellow performers Zarina and Kauser were returning on a motorcycle rickshaw from a wedding ceremony on early Friday when a police mobile intercepted them on Masoom Shah Road and later allegedly gang-raped the former.

A medical board conducted examination of the victims and confirmed that both were tortured and raped. The police initially were reluctant to register the case but they had to do so after the medico-legal report. A case under section 10(4)7/79 has been registered against six unidentified officials, interestingly on the report of New Multan SHO Saeed Gujjar.

Police authorities said the rickshaw driver, who was with the victims when they were kidnapped, had been taken into custody. They claimed that the driver had denied that the kidnappers were in police uniform and riding an official vehicle.

Late on Saturday night, the Multan DPO office had issued two separate press statements about the incident. In one, the police refuted that the perpetrators were the policemen and instead alleged that Bagh Hussain, Muhammad Nadeem and Shakeel Ahmed, who had hired them for singing, could be involved in the crime.

But, in the second release, the police quoted Bagh Hussain, Nadeem and Shakeel as giving witness that neither the perpetrators were policemen nor they were in a police pick-up. Both the statements have glaring contradictions.

Meanwhile, the HRCP local chapter has expressed dissatisfaction over the police investigation and opined that a fair probe is not possible until removal of some of the responsible senior police officials from their present place of postings in Multan.

Daughter of MMA leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed, MNA Samia Raheel Qazi, paid a visit to the Nishter Hospital on Sunday to express solidarity with the victims. A brother of the victim 'S' told Miss Qazi that police were allegedly threatening them with dire consequences if they blamed cops for the incident. The MNA assured the victim's family that she would raise the matter on the floor of the house.

An official at the hospital, Dr Amer, told the legislator that both 'S' and 'T' were in a trauma and they started shivering and finally fell unconscious on seeing the police.

A team of lawyers representing the victims on behalf of Society for Awareness about Fundamental rights and Education (SAFE) has condemned the police authorities for making a police official the complainant instead of the victims in the FIR lodged against the unidentified perpetrators in uniform.

The SAFE activists have demanded a judicial probe into the incident aided by an independent investigation agency. Meanwhile, the provincial police authorities have sent SSP (investigations) Dr Arif to conduct a separate inquiry into the matter. However, insiders alleged that Dr Arif seldom found any fault with the police ranks.

DPO: The district police officer, in a statement on Sunday night, requested the district and sessions judge to hold an inquiry into the incident.