Landowners assault girl in front of family

SHEIKHUPURA: Police have arrested four influential landowners in the Kot Sohna area after they allegedly raped a labourer’s teenaged daughter in front of her mother and grandmother.

According to the girl’s family, the men first tied up her father Ghafoor Masih at another house. They then broke into Masih’s house and tied up the girl’s mother Shabana and blind grandmother Sughran and beat them with sticks.

“They would not leave us alone and took my daughter to a corner while we were tied up,” Shabana said.

The women’s screams alerted the neighbours. “We heard screams from the house and when we broke in the men pointed a gun at us,” said Khalid Qayum, who entered the house with several other men to help the women.

He said that the accused had walked away from the scene after leaving the 15-year-old girl lying on the floor unconscious. “We informed Ghafoor of what happened when he returned,” he said.

Ghafoor said during the assault, he had been held hostage and tied up at one Fazal Karim’s house by Abdul Rashid and Saqib Rashid. He said when he and his daughter went to the police station to register a case, they initially refused because they were being paid off by the accused. The police eventually registered the case when he threatened to take the story to the media, he said.

Kot Sohna Superintendent of Police Khosa said that the four accused had already been arrested.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 5^th, 2010.