Chiniot police on Wednesday arrested six men accused of vani, gang-rape and abetment.
District Police Officer (DPO) Rao Munir Ahmad Zia told The Express Tribune that Muhammad Zafar, Khizar Hayat, Muhammad Ayub, Gulsher, Zahid Hussain and Hafiz Qasim had been arrested.
He said a police team comprising DSP Aalam Sher, DSP Tahir Nawaz, Inspector Chaudhry Muhammad Younus, Inspector Shaukat and Inspector Rana Anwar had been constituted to arrest the remaining suspects.
A panchayat in Mawar Bhattian had declared 22-year-old *Safiya vani following her brother’s marriage to one *Tasneem Bibi without her family’s approval.
*Safiya was kidnapped, married forcibly, ‘divorced’, kidnapped again, gang-raped and tied to a tree in the street while stripped, according to the FIR registered with Muhammad Wala, Chiniot, police. “I have issued orders that the investigation be completed at the earliest,” Zia said.
*Names have been changed to protect identities
Published in The Express Tribune, March 20th, 2014.