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FAISALABAD: The city police on Tuesday arrested five men on charges of assaulting, stripping and filming four women in Faisalabad’s Bawa Chak Market.
According to a tweet by the Punjab Police, two of the suspects were arrested on Monday night and three others were arrested later on Tuesday. “All aspects of the incident are being investigated,” the tweet said.
فیصل آباد پولیس نے رات 2 ملزمان کو گرفتار کرلیا تھا، مزید کاروائی کرکے پانچوں ملزمان کو گرفتار کر لیا گیا ہے۔اس واقعہ کی دیگر تمام پہلوؤں سے بھی تفتیش کی جا رہی ہے۔
آئی جی پنجاب خواتین اور بچوں پر تشدد اور ہراسگی کے واقعات پر زیرو ٹالرنس پالیسی پر عمل پیرا ہیں۔ https://t.co/TnxbsmUBdZ pic.twitter.com/6T08YYvnuL— Punjab Police Official (@OfficialDPRPP) December 7, 2021
Meanwhile, Faisalabad City Police Officer (CPO) Dr Mohammad Abid Khan has also confirmed the arrested and said that raids were being conducted for further arrests and the culprits would be given strict punishment.
The matter had surfaced when a video of the four women went viral on social media. Subsequently, a first information report (FIR) was registered at Millat Town police station against four named suspects and 10 unidentified suspects on behalf of one of the victims.
The suspects have been charged under sections 354-A (assault or use of criminal force against a woman and stripping her), 509 (insulting modesty or causing sexual harassment), 147 (punishment for rioting) and 149 (unlawful assembly guilty of an offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
According to the FIR, the complainant, a garbage-picker, went to Bawa Chak Market with three other women to collect garbage on Monday. She told police that they were thirsty and went inside a shop, Usman Electric Store, and asked for a bottle of water from one of the suspects, Saddam, whom they identified as the owner of the shop.
However, Saddam began shouting at them, accusing them of entering his shop with the intention to steal, the FIR said, adding that other suspects also reached the shop upon hearing him shouting.
They began beating the four women, stripped them and dragged them through the market. “They continued to beat us for around an hour and made our videos in naked condition,” the FIR quoted the complainant as saying.
“The suspects committed gross injustice by stripping us, dragging us through the market and torturing us and strict action should be taken against them,” the complainant said in the FIR.
