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Gang-rape on Panchayat orders

Interrogation begins

Panchayat chief implicated in another rape

By Abdul Sattar Qamar

MULTAN: The police have started interrogating the four men involved in the gang-rape of a girl on the instructions of a panchayat in a village near Muzzaffargarh.

According to Crimes Branch SP Mirza Abbas, Faiz Baksh, chief of the panchayat, and the three alleged rapists, Fayyaz Hussain, Abdul Khaliq and Ghulam Fareed Mastoi, are being interrogated to determine the real motive behind the crime. Police are investigating the claims that the rape was prompted by the Mastoi tribe’s desire to ‘eject’ the Gujjar tribe – to which the raped girl belongs – from the area. Sources told Daily Times that a ‘number of people’ have been engaged in attempts to acquire possession of the local lands, which have been in the possession of the Mastoi tribe. They said the rape was an attempt to ‘terrorise’ these people into abandoning their attempts. SP Abbas said the accused had confessed to raping the girl, Mukhtaran Bibi, but said they claimed it was in reaction to the ‘news’ that her brother had sexually assaulted a woman from their tribe, Nasim Mai. He said the challan for the case would be submitted to a special anti-terrorism court the following week and was optimistic that all the remaining culprits would be arrested within the next 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the police have received another complaint against Faiz Baksh, claiming that he had kidnapped and held a young girl for the past six months. At a press conference on Sunday, the girl’s mother, Union Councillor Allah Wasai, said Faiz Baksh had kidnapped her daughter at gunpoint six months ago, together with six accomplices. Ms Wasai said that during the past six months her daughter was repeatedly raped by Faiz Baksh and Bashir Hussain Mastoi, adding that she was released only after Mukhtaran Bibi’s case appeared in the press.

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