FAISALABAD: Police officials have arrested the parents, brother and uncle of a 13-year-old boy who was recently gang raped by four landlords.

According to residents of Sir Syed Town, Abdul Hafeez’s son Irfan was kidnapped from his home three months ago by four men. Hafeez accused Shahid, Asad, Raheem and Kamran of abducting his son. “They had threatened our family several times before because we were unable to make some land payments and they threatened me two days before my son was kidnapped,” Hafeez said.

Hafeez told reporters that he had approached the police about the case but they refused to investigate the matter.

“A month ago our son returned home but he had been beaten and raped,” said Irfan’s mother Hajra Bibi. “We had a medical test done and it confirmed he was raped. We have been trying to get the police to register the case for weeks,” she said.

Hajra Bibi said that the family initially approached Factory Area Police with the case.

“They took down our details and said that they would file the case but they didn’t. They received a call from the accused and told us to leave the station,” she said. Mansoor Ahmed, Irfan’s uncle said that police officials had not registered the case because local landlord Ashraf Sultan had made a call on behalf of his two sons Shahid and Asad and police were unwilling to pursue the matter further.

“The police came to our house three times and pushed us to drop the case. They interviewed Irfan and still insisted we stop the proceedings,” Mansoor said.

Irfan and his family refused to drop the case and on Wednesday, Madina Town Police arrested Hafeez, Hajra Bibi, Mansoor and Irfan’s older brother Adeel. Police officials registered a case against the family and are currently holding them in lock up.

“They came to the house and merely took them away. Irfan was at school when they were all gone. We protested for a week outside the police station for justice and this is the result!” said a servant at the house, Basheer. Madina Town SHO Shafqat Rahman said that the charges were completely false. “There was no report confirming the boy was raped and that is why we didn’t register a case. The families are fighting over a land dispute,” he said.

A doctor at Allied Hospital who treated Irfan soon after he returned to his family said that he had performed a medical exam of the boy. “I performed the exam myself and the boy was tortured and he had been raped repeatedly. I even submitted a report to the police station,” Dr Asadullah Khan said.

SHO Rahman said that police officials had arrested the family because they had been creating a disturbance.

Source: The Express Tribune

Date:7/21/2011