KOHAT, Dec 22: A local leader of a banned religious outfit was arrested for abduction and repeated gang rape of an Afghan woman and sent to jail on Saturday, police said.

The victim, Peekay, 24, told the police investigation team that she was picked up by Abdul Haleem, Atiqullah and Obaidullah, sons of Fazal Karim, and Matiullah from the KDA hospital where she had gone begging on the evening of July 24.

The police had registered an FIR for kidnapping. Several places had been raided during the last four months for the recovery of the girl. The accused finally left the girl at a deserted place in the jurisdiction of Jangle Kkel police station on the night of Dec 19.

“The house where I was repeatedly gang raped by four people is located near my make-shift house in the Khattak Colony. When I was kidnapped, Abdul Haleem asked me to marry him, but when I refused he forcibly performed Nikah with me,” the victim told the police.

“After a few days, he told me that the “forced” Nikah was un-Islamic, therefore, he declared it void, which was followed by repeated sexual assaults by his three companions,” she said while relating her ordeal.

Obaidullah used to contact her family for a compromise and had also agreed to pay compensation, she told the official in charge of the investigation, Nijjat Khan.

She also said that the accused used to beat her up, burned her with cigarettes and forcibly gave her drugs during the four months of captivity. “They all behaved like sex maniacs,” she alleged.

The police said that the three accused, named in the FIR registered on the complaint of Peekay, were still at large and had been declared “fugitives”. They are: Obaidullah, Atiqullah and Matiullah.

The case has been handed over to the investigation branch of the police, which, after recording the statement of the victim, had started searching for the criminals.