Manhunt for girl’s captors

BY JAMIE HARO
POLICE in Madang are looking for a group of men who abducted and gang-raped a schoolgirl in a settlement in Madang two weeks ago.
Provincial police commander Supt Mazuc Rubiang said the girl was walking along a bush track to the Sakul Primary School in the Sumkar District when four men grabbed her.
The four men had covered their faces with their shirts.
“They tied her up, covered her mouth with a piece of cloth, dragged her to the main road, and pushed her into a bus parked on the highway,” Rubiang said.
He said they then drove to Madang town.
He said the girl could not identify any of her captors.
Police also reported that on Sept 26, a 17-year-old girl was walking to school from her Bulal village in Sumkar when she was similarly abducted by a group of men.
They took her in a bus through Madang town and into a settlement where they allegedly raped her.
“She was locked in a house for 11 nights and subjected to sexual abuse,” he said.
“On Oct 7, she discovered that the men were planning to kill her and dispose her body at a dump at night.”
Her cry for help was heard by a minor who told her mother.
“The mother asked (the abducted girl) how she got into the home, before verbally abusing her and walked away,” he said.
“The minor however returned to the home when the girl was being kept, made a hole in the wall and helped her escape.”
A family looked after her before taking her back to her family. The matter was reported to police on Oct 10.