ISLAMABAD, May 18: Police on Tuesday arrested nine people, including two women, who were sitting in a protest camp outside the Parliament House, demanding arrest of the culprits involved in Narowal gang rape case.

Those arrested included three priests, Nazeer Bhatti, Anwar Bhatti and Nawaz Bhatti, an aunt of the gang rape victim and a human rights activist, Dr Farzana Bari. A Secretariat Police Station official said these persons had been arrested for violating Section 144.

The family members of the victim had been sitting in the protest camp for the past 14 days. Interestingly, both the victim and her mother escaped arrest as they had gone to arrange lunch for the protesters.

According to the police official, these people had been arrested on the orders of the "high-ups" as they caused embarrassment to the government when the visiting Tajik president took notice of the protest and inquired about the incident.

The SHO of the Secretariat Police Station, Arshad Khokar, told Dawn that Sultan of Brunei was visiting the country and these people had been arrested to save the government from another embarrassing situation.

Meanwhile, speaking at a press conference here on Tuesday evening, representatives of civil society organizations and human right activists condemned the police action and demanded immediate release of the arrested persons.

Aster Nemat, the mother of the gangrape victim, was also present on the occasion. Talking to reporters, she said if the authorities failed to provide justice to them then all her family members would commit suicide in front of the Parliament House.

She narrated how her daughter was kidnapped and later gang- raped by some influential of the area. She said they had come to Islamabad after failing to get justice from courts and police in Narowal.

She said the SHO of a police station was protecting the culprits. She further said they had been receiving threats even in Islamabad that they would be killed if they continued their protest.

The victim's mother alleged that the culprits had political backing, and that a sitting MNA and a former MNA were also putting pressure on them to withdraw the case. She said perhaps they had been targeted because they belonged to minority community. She disclosed that the relatives of the culprits had also offered them Rs0.5 million to Rs1 million for keeping their mouth shut.

Sarwar Bari, chief coordinator of Pattan Development Organization, Nasreen Azhar of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Saba Gul Khattak of the SDPI, Naeem Mirza of Aurat Foundation and renowned literary figure Kishwar Naheed also spoke on the occasion and condemned the incident.