MULTAN, July 9: The Muzaffargarh police arrested the third juror of Meerwala gang-rape case from Gaddani area in Balochistan on Tuesday.

A police source told Dawn that the arrest of juror Ramzan Pachar had come into being with the help of an area ‘notable’. He said a team of Jatoi police was bringing Pachar by road to Muzaffargarh. “He will be in the police station by 10am on Wednesday,” he added.

With the arrest of Ramzan Pachar, the police have taken into custody all the members of the so-called panchayat of Meerwala village, Muzaffargarh district, who allegedly ordered gang-rape of the sister of 12-year-old Shakoor Tattla against whom the powerful Mastoi clan of the village levelled allegation of having illicit relation with an 18-year-old Mastoi girl.

The other arrested panchayat members are Faiz Bakhsh, the chief juror, and Ghulam Farid, juror-cum-rapist. Among other alleged rapists, Abdul Khaliq and Fayyaz Husain have been arrested and Allah Ditta is still at large.

Ramzan Pachar is the most villainous character of the Meerwala tragedy. He is the man who allegedly extorted Rs10,000 from the father of Shakoor for his release from police custody. And he is the man who allegedly deceived Shakoor’s family saying their daughter had to seek apology for the act of her brother before the Mastois-dominated panchayat. He reportedly also ‘escorted’ the gang-rape victim from her house to the place where panchayat was convened.

On the other hand, no serious effort has so far been observed on the part of Muzaffargarh police to apprehend the three alleged culprits — Jamil, Pannu and Manzoor — who assaulted young Shakoor on June 22 last.

When contacted Dera Ghazi Khan range DIG police Asif Nawaz said the first priority of police was to arrest the culprits named in the gang-rape case. He hoped that the sodomy case accused would also be brought to the court of law very soon.

Meanwhile, the Muzaffargarh district administration has started preparing a list of defaulters of lease-money of state lands among the Mastois. It may be added here that later Sardar Korra Khan Jatoi, the unmatchable philanthropist among the Balochi tribes of this part of the country, had handed over his 86 squares of fertile agricultural land to Muzaffargarh zila council to do development work in the area from the income of the land.

But the political bigwigs of the area leased out the land to Mastoi clan on very nominal rates. This brought prosperity and power to the clan who started using their status against the weaker clans of the area.

The Muzaffargarh administration now wants to vacate the Korra Khan lands from the defaulting Mastoi clan people.