Lahore, Dec 16: Four people who forcibly paraded a local council woman naked through her village have been arrested by police in Pakistan, officials said today.
Naseem Akhtar Butt was stripped, beaten and then forced to walk through Sadra Badra village in eastern Pakistan's Punjab province after the landlord and others accosted her over a festering political dispute.
The incident has outraged Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi, who ordered the arrests of landlord Mohammad Alam, his five sons and several other accomplices after local police failed to take up the case, Elahi's spokesman said.
"The Chief Minister ordered the arrest of the attackers after local police failed to take action," spokesman Malik Mohammad Hussain told a news agency.


Alam, two of his sons and another accomplice are among those already in custody.

More arrests are expected, and the Chief Minister has ordered police to complete their report within two weeks, Hussain said.

"The motive was political rivalry," he added.
Butt, who was elected Councillor in local elections in July 2001, said she was assaulted by Alam and others on December 7 after leaving a mosque where she had launched an appeal for donations to construct a prayer site, according to Hussain.

"This infuriated her political rivals who pounced on her soon after she came out of the mosque," he said.

Butt had apparently supported Alam's opponents in recent polls, while Alam's family had opposed butt's own successful candidacy for Councillor last year.

Bureau Report