ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani court on Friday granted police a five-day physical remand of four men suspected of kidnapping and sexually assaulting two foreign women who were rescued following a distress call from Spain, according to court documents and officials.
The suspects, identified by police as Ahmad Raza Dar, Sikandar Aziz Khan, Hassan Raza and Sajid Ali, were produced before a judicial magistrate following their arrest on July 2.
In a written order, the judge noted that police had sought a 14-day physical remand to recover the weapon allegedly used in the offense, recover the ransom money and complete the investigation, before granting investigators five days of physical custody.
“The allegation is of rape,” Deputy District Public Prosecutor Nazar Iqbal told Arab News by phone after the court proceedings.
“Gang rape took place because there were multiple people, more than one,” he added. “Additionally, they had kept them hidden at a certain place and then there was a demand for ransom.”
The case emerged after the victims, a Dutch and a Venezuelan national, were rescued by police from a location in Lahore’s upscale Defense neighborhood.
The women had traveled to Pakistan after receiving an invitation from a local acquaintance, Ahmad Raza Dar, whom they met in Singapore in October 2025.
Investigators said the women were abducted on June 29 by a group of men who demanded a $1.5 million ransom for their release and repeatedly assaulted them during their captivity.
The rescue operation was launched after the father of one of the women placed an emergency call to Pakistani police from Spain. Investigators tracked the suspects using municipal surveillance cameras and recovered the women within two hours, police said.
They added a fifth suspect, a security guard, was still at large.
Samples have been collected from the two women, and the suspects will undergo forensic testing to determine whether the samples match, Iqbal said.
He added prosecutors would proceed with the case based on other evidence even if the forensic results are inconclusive.
