DERA GHAZI KHAN, July 18: The special court set up here under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 admitted the challan of the Meerwala gang-rape case on Thursday.

The Station House Officer of the Jatoi police station, Abdul Lateef Chandia, arrived at the court to submit the challan at 1.45pm.

The court headed by Judge Zulfiqar Ali kept on scrutinizing the challan till evening when they adjourned the proceedings for Friday.

The SHO informed reporters that the court had accepted the case for trial and added that the police had challaned 15 people, including an assistant sub-inspector.

The accused were identified as Faiz Bakhsh, the chief juror; Ramzan Pachaar, arbitrator; Ghulam Farid, the juror-rapist; Abdul Khaliq, Allah Ditta and Fayyaz Hussain, the other three rapists; ASI Mohammad Iqbal, accused of negligence of duty; Aslam, Allah Ditta, Khalil, Rasool Bakhsh, Qasim, Ghulam Hussain, Hazoor Bakhsh and Allah Diwaya, accused of being part of strong assembly of Mastoi tribesmen that had enforced the Panchayat verdict to gang-rape the sister of 12-year-old Shakoor Tattla.

Accused Abdul Khaliq and Allah Ditta had blamed Shakoor for having illicit relations with their sister. On this ground, the Mastois had convened the Panchayat and enforced its verdict to avenge the “insult” Shakoor had inflicted on them.

However, the Tattlas said that Mastois had first sodomized Shakoor and in a bid to cover up their crime they staged the Panchayat drama.