Police have launched a manhunt for six people five days after they allegedly raped a pregnant woman by holding her husband hostage at gunpoint in Pabna’s Sujanagar Upazila.

The law enforcers were informed verbally while locals caught one of the alleged rapists and beat him up after the incident at Char Keshtapur in Sagarkandi on Saturday midnight, but no one was arrested until a case was started on Wednesday, the husband said.

The accused, all at large, are Selim Uddin, 23, Md Sharif, 24, Rajib Sarder, 21, Ruhul Mandal, 26, Lalon Sarder, 20, and Sirajul, 23, who was identified with a single name.

“We’ve launched an operation to arrest them,” Aminpur Police Station chief Harunur Rashid said.

The woman’s husband said she was three months into her pregnancy and they lost the child after the incident.

“The rapists pressured us for a settlement and threatened us that nothing will happen to them and we will face danger if we file a case. That’s why there was a delay in filing the case after informing the police verbally,” he said.

According to the case filed by the husband, the woman went to him for money when he was working on the decoration of a Waz Mahfil, a religious gathering, in the area on Feb 23 night.

The accused stopped the couple and asked them if they were husband and wife when they were heading to a relative’s house after attending the programme.

The woman, at Pabna General Hospital where she was undergoing treatment, said the culprits did not believe them even when they called their parents to prove that they are married.

“They beat up my husband and raped me in a field by holding him hostage at gunpoint. Locals detained one of them and beat him when my husband freed himself and called the villagers,” she said.

Two villagers, Liton and Razzaque who gave single names, said the man came to them and said his wife was taken away by some people when the Waz Mahfil was under way around 1am.

The locals rushed to the scene and beat up one of the culprits while the others fled, the villagers said.

They took the woman to a village doctor and then to the hospital, said two other locals – Nifas and Shahid, who also identified themselves with single names.

The village doctor, Tofazzal Hossain Kaderi, said he recommended hospitalising the woman after giving her first aid because she was in a critical condition.

Jahidul Islam, resident medical officer of Pabna General Hospital, said the woman was doing well.

He confirmed that the woman was pregnant, but could not say if she was raped because the gynaecologists were looking into the allegation.