LAHORE: The Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) police have arrested two suspects for their involvement in harassing a girl travelling on Qingqi Rickshaw near Lahore’s Greater Iqbal Park on Independence Day.
According to details, the arrested suspects have been shifted to an unidentified location while further investigation was underway. A day earlier, Punjab Information Minister Fayyazul Chohan announced that the Lahore police have identified two men who harassed a woman near Minar-e-Pakistan.
A case had been registered at the Lari Adda police station on the station house officer’s (SHO) complaint, after police were shown a video of the incident which went viral on social media.
The FIR estimates 10-12 “morally unrestrained” men on board motorcycles to have harassed two women sitting on board a Qingqi rickshaw, with a child seated in between them.
The case has been registered under Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or for a shorter term), 294 (obscene acts and songs), 509 (ii) (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 147 (punishment for rioting), and 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The video shows the motorcyclists hounding the rickshaw, catcalling and leering at the women, besides making obscene gestures, stated the FIR. “One of the men, wearing a white shirt and blue jeans, jumped onto the rickshaw to forcibly kiss one of the women on her cheek and also tried to tear her clothes off,” it noted.
The other men, meanwhile, were constantly “hooting, catcalling, and leering at the women and making obscene gestures”.
The incident comes at a time when Pakistanis, especially women, are already on edge after the video clip of a woman being assaulted and harassed at the Minar-e-Pakistan on Independence Day went viral on social media.
