MULTAN, May 15: Police claimed on Saturday to have registered a case against six unidentified policemen, who allegedly gang-raped two gypsy singers at gunpoint in New Multan police station precinct late Friday night.

Reports said four singers were returning home by a motorcycle-rickshaw after performing at a wedding ceremony at Sameejabad when some policemen, riding a pick-up, stopped them near Jamia Babul Aloom on the Masoom Shah Road about 2.30am.

The officials beat up the women and the rickshaw driver without any provocation. However, the driver fled leaving the women at the mercy of the policemen.

The law-enforcers let relatively older Kausar and Zarina, but blindfolded 'S' (18) and 'T' (30) and bundled them into their vehicle. They took the women to some place where four of them raped 'S' and the other two 'T'.

After three hours, the policemen dragged almost unconscious women into the vehicle and threw them at a deserted road of Shah Rukn-i-Alam colony. The victims later contacted a lawyer, Arshad Gujjar, who got orders from a judicial magistrate for their medical examination.

The report issued on Saturday confirmed that both were gang-raped. The medico-legal officer observed that rape was committed against them within 12 hours of the examination and they had multiple torture marks on their bodies.

Although the victims could not recall whether it was a police station building or some other place, their lawyer Arshad Gujjar insisted at a press conference he addressed along with the victims that the place of crime was the New Multan police station. The victims, however, confirmed that all the perpetrators were in uniform.

When talked, DPO Hamid Mukhtar Gondal denied that the women were criminally assaulted at the police station. He said four teams had been set up to investigate the matter.

"Rest assured no body can escape punishment if found guilty of crime," he pledged, adding the perpetrators could not be identified so far.

The DPO said he had suspended sub-inspector Muhammad Ayub for negligence. He said the 15 emergency had informed SI Ayub, who was on a patrol duty, about the incident after receiving complaint from Kausar and Zarina, but he turned a deaf ear to it.Expressing dissatisfaction with the investigation, advocate Gujjar demanded a probe either by a judicial magistrate or another investigation agency. He alleged that the police authorities would try to hush up the matter because they could also be taken to task in case of revelation of facts.