MULTAN, July 11: Both police and the area feudals have joined hands to manage acquittal of the Meerwala Mastoi clan chief who headed the ‘panchayat’ that ordered gang-rape of a woman.

Faiz Bakhsh Mastoi, who courted arrest a few days ago at the offices of a local Urdu daily, was being treated like a special guest at the Jatoi police station when this correspondent visited the area on Thursday.

SHO Abdul Latif Chandia did not allow to see the chief juror in the lock-up and instead called him to his office to meet this correspondent. Clad in ‘lacha and kurta’, he seemed confident and at times he burst out against the national press for what he said highlighting a ‘minor’ issue.

When he was using abusive language against the media, the SHO patted him out of intimacy and apologized on his behalf, saying “please do not mind, he is under the stress of being detained.”

Earlier when asked to recall the events of June 22 last, he started telling a somehow crammed statement in Urdu, though, otherwise he was speaking in Seraiki language. While describing the events, he glanced towards the SHO from time to time to get his approval. The SHO was so generous that he did not disappoint him on any occasion.

His statement was different from the earlier ones published in the print media. He claimed that Mastois demanded from Tattlas to give one of their girls in marriage to a son of Imam Bakhsh Mastoi because 12-year-old Shakoor Tattla was accused of having relations with his (Imam Bakhsh’s) 18-year-old daughter.

Faiz Bakhsh claimed that Tattlas were of the view that it would be better to ‘punish’ their daughter for once instead of sending her to the hell for the rest of her life. He claimed that he was against the gang-rape verdict and when Tattlas brought their daughter before the gathering, he pleaded pardon for her.

He said when Abdul Khaliq and others were dragging the woman to avenge, he ordered Ghulam Farid and others to stop them. Farid was the perpetrator who was also a member of the panchayat. Faiz Bakhsh claimed that Farid and others rescued the woman and handed her over to her father. He denied that any incident of gang-rape was happened.

Later, Abdul Khaliq also joined the interview. “All you have learnt is right,” he said in a grim voice adding “this was bound by the fate.” At this, Faiz Bakhsh admonished him and asked to tell what had ‘actually’ happened. Khaliq repeated the events like a parrot in the same order as told by the chief juror.

During the interview, a discussion was ensued that whether or not a special court should try the Meerwala case, the SHO said circumstances did not fall in the schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

At Meerwala, Tattlas and other clansmen revealed horrific stories of Mastois’ atrocities in the area at the behest of political bigwigs.

In Jatoi tehsil, there are three main political families — Jatois, Syeds and Gupangs. The Mastois have divided themselves among the political camps in the area. Faiz Bakhsh supports Nasrullah Jatoi, Sadiq Mastoi supports Syed Basit Sultan and Kazim Ali Mastoi backs Ashiq Gupang. Irrespective of the matter who is at the helms of affair at Jatoi and Alipur tehsils of Muzaffargarh district, the Mastois do manage to grind their axe.

At present, tehsil Nazim Nasrullah Jatoi is reportedly making all-out efforts to safe Faiz Bakhsh from the ‘crisis’ in the wake of the forthcoming general elections for which he will need votes of the Mastoi clan. People said he had recently summoned the witnesses and threatened them not to name Faiz Mastoi as prime abettor in the gang-rape case.

On the other hand, his political opponent, Basit Sultan, has reportedly initiated channels with Tattlas to forgive Faiz Bakhsh. He wants to win over Faiz Bakhsh’s support for the October polls. He has also used his influence to induct Sadiq Mastoi and Bashir Mastoi as witnesses to the statements of the victim, her father, brother, Abdul Razzaq, her uncle Sabir and others recorded under Section 161 of the CrPC.

Tattlas told Dawn that police included the names of two Mastois as prosecution witnesses on their own. They complained against the attitude of Jatoi SDPO Saeed Awan. They claimed that he had pressurized them to record statements that would prove favourable to Faiz Bakhsh. They said the victim and her father had to speak at a news conference to complain against the SDPO but the local press turned their assertions against Dera range SP crimes Mirza Abbas.

“Mirza Sahib is very cooperative with us,” they said.

Meanwhile, an area outlaw, Muneer Mastoi, has been threatening Tattlas with dire consequences if they do not stop pursuing the case. “Police have provided us guard but we cannot sleep at night because of the threats being given by Muneer who is harboured by Faiz Bakhsh,” said Hazoor Bakhsh, the elder brother of the gang-rape victim.

He said the police had arrested one Fayyaz, the son of Karim Bakhsh, from Dhuni instead of the actual rapist, Fayyaz Mastoi.

Abdul Razzaq and Haji Manzoor told Dawn that the police had made Sadiq and Bashir as prosecution witness despite the fact that they were on the list of mischievous people provided by Tattlas who attended the one-sided panchayat.