MULTAN, June 7: A 13-year-old girl allegedly raped by six people tried to commit suicide by setting herself ablaze to protest against what she called the refusal of Khanewal police to arrest her rapists even after a court had cancelled their bail. The girl, (S), accompanied by her parents, tried to set herself ablaze outside the Multan Press Club when Awami Muslim League president and former federal minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, was talking to reporters here on Saturday.

Later, the girl, who is a resident of Chak 27/15-L, Mian Chunnu, told reporters that six people of the same locality, Muhammad Imran, Ikram Tippu, Muhammad Saleem, Atta Muhammad, Imran Ahmed and Awais, abducted her from her house on Nov 6, 2007, took her to the outhouse of Saleem where they raped her for four days.

She said that later her rapists also abducted her brother, Shehzad, 17, before producing her in the court of an additional sessions judge where they compelled her to give a statement to the effect that her family wanted to marry her with an old man against her consent, so she did not want to go home and instead wanted to go to Darul Aman (shelter house). She said that the culprits threatened to kill her brother if she did not give statement according to their desire. After her statement, she said, the judge ordered the police to shift her to Darul Aman in Khanewal.

Her father Saeed Ahmed said that he had moved the additional sessions court for a medical examination of his daughter on Nov 16 and the medical report confirmed that she had been raped.

He said that the court also ordered the Mian Chunnu’s Sadar police to lodge a case on which FIR No 507/07 under Section 365-B was registered on Nov 21.

He alleged that the suspects, in connivance with the police, procured their pre-arrest bail on the same day. However, the court recalled their interim bail on Dec 21, but they fled from the courtroom again in collusion with the police.

“The police have arrested only one suspect, Awais, while the remaining five are still at large and were threatening them to kidnap the girl again to teach a lesson to her family.”

They were pressing him to stop prosecuting the case against them, he said and added that the police were reluctant to arrest the suspects despite having received Rs90,000 gratification from him for the purpose.

He threatened to commit suicide along with his whole family if the police did not arrest the culprits.

Investigation Officer Rana Muhammad Idress told Dawn that the girl had an affair with Awais and she fled along with him according to her free will.

He said that after rejection of their bail, the police caught Awais, while the remaining suspects proved during interrogation that they were not guilty of any offence.