MULTAN, Sept 5: The Meerwala gang-rape victim, Mukhtaran Mai, on Thursday filed two separate appeals with the Multan bench of Lahore High Court against the acquittal of eight accused and no punishment to convicts under Section 354-A PPC.

The appeals were filed by her state-appointed counsel Ramzan Khalid Joiya. Mukhtaran Mai visited the office of her counsel on Wednesday to thumbmark the appeals.

The DG Khan anti-terrorism court judge had acquitted accused Aslam, Allah Ditta, Khalil Ahmed, Ghulam Hussain, Hazoor Bakhsh, Rasool Bakhsh, Qasim and Nazar Hussain for lack of evidence. Police had placed them in Column-II of the challan they submitted in the case with the ATC.

Placement in Column-II means police have not sufficient evidence against the accused and that its the discretion of court to have a trial of them. The eight were charged for being the powerful members of Mastoi clan that enforced the panchayat verdict of gang-rape.

FIR of the incident was registered under several criminal offences, including 354-A PPC, which deals with stripping of clothes of a woman and exposing her to public view.

In his judgment, the ATC judge observed that the accused persons were not liable to the offences under section 354-A/109 PPC in the facts and the circumstances of the case.

The convicts Abdul Khaliq, Allah Ditta, Fayyaz Hussain (rapists), Ghulam Farid (juror-turned-rapist), Faiz Muhammad (chief juror) and Ramzan Pachaar (arbitrator) have also filed appeals against their convictions with the Multan bench of the LHC.

The ATC had handed down death sentence, life imprisonment on two counts, 30 lashes and Rs40,000 fine to each of the six convicts on the night between Saturday and Sunday last.

Talking to Dawn at the office of her counsel on Wednesday, a family source of Mukhtaran Mai disclosed the government had yet to decide whether the acquittal of the eight accused should be challenged in a court of law.

He said that he met Muzaffargarh DCO Azam Saleem the other day to know whether the government would support them to file the appeals, but he said he had not so far received direction in this regard. He said in any case her family wanted to see all the accused stand condemned.

When contacted, advocate Joiya said the appeals were filed by Mukhtaran Mai on her own and the state could file separate appeals if it wanted to do so against the acquittal of the eight accused. He said, however, he would recommend that the state should own the appeals filed by Mukhtaran Mai.