By Staff Reporter
LAHORE: A Lahore court on Friday ordered five days of physical remand for four men arrested over the alleged kidnapping and rape of two foreign tourists, a case that has drawn attention after police said the women were held for ransom and sexually assaulted over several days in the eastern city of Lahore.
Judicial Magistrate Azhar Mahmood granted the shorter remand after prosecutors had asked for two weeks, according to court proceedings at the Cantonment Courts, where the suspects were brought under heavy security with their faces covered by masks. The magistrate ordered the masks removed once the hearing began and directed police to produce the men again on July 8, when their remand expires.
The suspects were identified as Raza Dar, Hassan Raza, Sajid Ali and Sikandar Khan. A public prosecutor told the court the case had embarrassed Pakistan internationally and that the lead suspect had been identified by the victims, according to the proceedings.
Police said the women, nationals of the Netherlands and Venezuela, had travelled to Pakistan after an acquaintance they met in Singapore in October invited them to visit. According to a first information report filed by one of the victims at the Defence C police station, the women were abducted on June 29 by that acquaintance and four accomplices, who demanded money for their release.
The complaint, which led to charges under Pakistan’s kidnapping and rape statutes, described repeated sexual assault during the women’s captivity, along with threats made with weapons, physical abuse and extortion, police said. The FIR states the suspects had demanded $1.5 million in ransom.
Police said they were alerted after the father of one of the women, who was in the Netherlands, called Punjab’s emergency helpline to report the alleged kidnapping. Officers said they used the city’s Safe City surveillance network to trace the suspects on the orders of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, recovering both women within roughly two hours and arresting four suspects. A fifth suspect named in the case remains at large, and police said raids were continuing.
Investigators said the two women had since undergone medical examinations, with police saying further legal steps would depend on forensic and other evidence gathered during the inquiry.
Social media reports have claimed one of the suspects is related to a prominent political figure. Police have not commented on that claim, and no such relationship is named in the FIR or in police statements on the case.
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