TWO sisters are living in fear after a harrowing hijacking ordeal over the Easter weekend by "thugs" who later turned out to be police officers.

Bontle Sibeko and Palesa Lamula went to a tavern in Phiri, Soweto, to get drinks, and as they walked out after making their purchase, were approached by two men brandishing guns.

The men demanded the keys to the women's hired Toyota car and took off with their identity documents, a laptop and other valuables.

"'I was dragged by my hair and as I turned around I saw him holding a gun to my head," Lamula recounted.

"Where is the key," one suspect demanded from the frightened sisters.

When Lamula, 29, replied that the keys were inside the car, the hijacker accused her of lying, and they began beating her up.

After the men found the keys, they sped off.

The women rushed back into the tavern and called the police. The police did not come to the scene of the hijacking.

The women were advised to walk to the nearby Moroka police station to report the matter.

Once they got to the police station, Lamula said a man asked her where they had been hijacked. It was when the man asked if the car had a tracking device that they realised he was one of the hijackers.

They immediately alerted the police.

Police spokeswoman Lieutenant-Colonel Katlego Mogale said: "The suspects were immediately arrested and investigations revealed that they were police officers.

"The docket was sent to the public prosecutor who declined to prosecute. He said more information was needed on the case. "

The sisters were angry that the cop hijackers were arrested and then mysteriously released without having appeared in court.

"Our lives are at risk," Sibeko, 36, said.

The car has not yet been recovered and they fear the suspects could trace them through the documents that were in the car.

Moses Dlamini, of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, said the directorate would investigate the matter.