LAHORE, January 13,2005 : Police on Thursday registered a case against five people, who had allegedly tortured a maid and three other members of her family.

However, a police source said the victims were tortured by the police after they were picked up five days ago on desire of the five people against whom the case was registered to cover the issue.

Admitted to the Lahore General Hospital, Hanifaan Bibi, her son Pervez, husband Kala Masih and a relative, Kashif, had severely been tortured, a hospital source said.

Her son, Bashir Masih, told the police that she used to work as maid with Syeda Butni of Cantonment for well over 15 years. He said the woman together with Khawar, Yawar, Amjad and Arshad abducted four members of his family and drove them to an unidentified place.

Bashir said no clue was found to the missing people till Wednesday when the car, used for the abduction, was found parked outside the Factory Area police station. On an inquiry, he said, the police told him that the four people had been handed over to them by the woman after torturing them. The victims told the police that the abductors had been demanding Rs400,000 from them, which they alleged the maid had stolen from the house.

The police source said the victims had been in the police custody for several days. Their relatives surrounded the police station on Tuesday and recovered them in deplorable condition and shifted them to the hospital.

Centre for Legal Aid and Settlement coordinator Joseph Frances, however, did not agree with the police source, and said the victims were tortured by the woman with whom the maid had been working.

Actually, he alleged, the woman wanted the maid to bring some girls to her on pretext of helping them lead better lives. But on refusal, he said, the maid and members of her family were charged with theft, kidnapped and tortured. He said the police were raiding for the arrest of the suspects.
Source: Dawn
Date:1/14/2005