RAWALPINDI, Aug 2: A teenaged girl was stripped off, abused and beaten in the open by a local influential in Gikh Badhal village, 65kms south from here a couple of days ago, eyewitnesses said.

District Nazim Raja Tariq Kiani, on learning about the incident, went to the village to get further details and ordered the police to help the grieved party get justice.

A local cleric told the Nazim that a couple of days ago he was sleeping in his house in the afternoon when he heard screams of a girl. He said when he went outside, he found Misbah Naz, the daughter of Walayat, in tattered clothes, being pinned to the ground by Manazir and his wife, while their son Mulazim was kicking and punching her.

He said he had learnt that the girl had gone to the house of the accused to complain about the behaviour of their boys, who, she alleged, beat her brothers, who were below 10 years of age.

Instead of apologizing for the misbehaviour of their boys, the accused pushed the girl out of the house, where she was stripped off her clothes and continuously beaten and abused, he said.

Walayat, the victim’s father, on seeing his daughter in such a condition was so stunned that he was unable to rescue her, the cleric said, and added that he then intervened.

The eyewitness said everyone subsequently left the scene of the incident. A few minutes later, he said, he heard the sound of fire from a carbine. On coming out of the house, he saw Mulazim’s mother injured in the leg with a bullet fire, which he was told by Manazir to have been fired by Walayat. He said he turned back to find Manazir holding the carbine in his hand, which proved that he had grievously hurt his wife to implicate Walayat’s family in an assault case so that he could not complain about the incident to the police. Later, the accused, he said, lodged a complaint against Walayat for having shot and injured Mulazim’s mother. But, since the villagers were witness to the whole incident they went to the police station and got Walayat released.

The Nazim was told that Walayat did not lodge a complaint against the accused because of fear of retaliation. The gathering was told that the accused had been committing unlawful acts in the area with impunity.

On this occasion, an old man stood up and informed the Nazim that the same people had sodomised his son, but he too could not complain to the police because of their fear.

Mr Kiani ordered the police to quash the false case registered against Walayat and lodge an FIR against the accused for brutalizing the girl, grievously injuring a woman with carbine fire and misleading the police. He assured the victim’s family of all assistance and warned that such illegal acts would not be allowed in the district. If the charges levelled against the accused in the FIR are proved, they might proved guilty, the accused face a possible death sentence.