Four pious witnesses required to prove rape charge

Police terms of reference for Sonia

‘Get four pious witnesses to prove rape charge’

By our correspondent

ISLAMABAD: The police inquiry team Wednesday asked Sonia Naz to produce four pious and reputable Muslim witnesses to testify her charge of rape at the hands of cops, otherwise her case would be dismissed.

The inquiry officers also warned Sonia that since the Punjab police was bugging her telephones for the last many months, the recording of her conversation with Lahore, Faisalabad and Islamabad journalists, who, they alleged, had been publishing her side of the story, would be used at an appropriate time.

Sonia alleged that during investigations, one of the inquiry officers, SP Captain Usman Khattak, asked her to give details and names of her "boyfriends" and other "flirtations" she might have had.

Dismissing the indecent allegations angrily, Sonia asked Captain Usman what these questions had to do with her rape case. Sonia said the inquiry officers asked every question about her past except the "abduction, torture and rape at the hand of SP Khalid Abdullah".

The inquiry team including Aslam Tarin, SP Captain Abid Qadri and SP Captain Usman Khattak told Sonia during investigation that she was required to bring in at least four witnesses who could testify to the alleged rape by SP Khalid Abdullah and Inspector Jamshed Chishti.

Sonia told the investigators that many evidences were already given in the inquiry report of DIG Zafar Qureshi and Saad Bharwana and they should first consult that report. But the inquiry officers said they did not believe in the findings of the previous report.

Sonia told the inquiry officers that SP Khalid Abdullah and Inspector Jamshed Chishti had abducted her and all those who subjected her to torture and later, raped her were closely linked to Inspector Chishti. Sonia counter-questioned how she could produce all those who, she alleged, acted on behalf of SP Khalid Abdullah.