Two arrested in gang-rape case: Five still at large

LARKANA, Feb 24: The Larkana investigation police on Saturday arrested two people nominated in the case involving the gang rape of three women in a village 10km off here.

However, Rajib Khuhawar and five other unidentified nominated accused are still at large.

Sheroo Bagri, a farmer, told this correspondent that eight men barged into his house and assaulted his wife Naseeban, daughter Sonari and a guest Shadan.

“We were silenced at gunpoint while the men raped the three women,” he said.

He said when they raised hue and cry, landlord Ashique Ali Khuhawar arrived at the scene and the criminals escaped. “They are the residents of village Ghulam Ali Khuhawar,” he said.

The three women were medically examined in Chandka Medical College Hospital Larkana.

The three victims also narrated their ordeal in the presence of the investigation police and area landlord.

Naseeban (30) took this correspondent to the two rooms where they were raped. She said some of the rapists stood guard on them while others were committing the crime.

“We were sleeping in front of our house when they barged in and overpowered us,” she said, adding that they dragged them inside and raped them.

Sonari, who had married just four months back, said that she was dragged into a room having no doors or windows and the men took turns to rape her. She said she kept crying, but to no avail.

Broken bangles and household articles were scattered all around the two rooms.

Shadan, an unmarried guest hardly ageing 14, was also raped by the eight men. He also told her ordeal to this correspondent and said she did not know the criminals.

The frightened family asked the DSP investigation and investigation officers Allah Jurriyo Khokhar and Ayaz Khero to do them justice. The eight men also took away gold and household articles, they said.

Khuhawar, the landlord who had shifted the peasant family to his land from Aliabad (Bakrani), was the first man to arrive at the spot when the victims cried for help.

He said he had himself seen the accused fleeing. A night watchman had seen six persons fleeing, he said.

Police and the people gathered there also said that the Bagri family had been the victim of excesses.

Source: Dawn

Date:2/25/2007