Lahore police has registered a case against hundreds of unidentified persons for assaulting, groping and tearing the clothes of a female TikToker and her companions at the city’s Greater Iqbal Park on Independence Day.
The First Information Report was registered under sections 354 A, 382, 147, and 149 of the Pakistan Penal Code.* The spokesperson for the Punjab Government said that the government has added strong and non-bailable clauses in the FIR.
In the first information report (FIR) registered at the Lorry Adda police station, the complainant stated she was filming a video near Minar-e-Pakistan on Independence Day when around 300 to 400 people “attacked us”.
“…The crowd was huge and people were scaling the enclosure and coming towards us. People were pushing and pulling me to the extent that they tore my clothes. Several people tried to help me but the crowd was too huge and they kept throwing me in the air,” the FIR quotes her as saying.
Observing the situation, the park’s security guard opened the gate to the enclosure around Minar-e-Pakistan, but to no avail.
“The unidentified persons assaulted us violently.” She stresses in the FIR.
Lahore DIG Operations Sajid Kiyani ordered the superintendent of police (SP) to take “immediate legal action” against the suspects involved in the incident.
“The suspects should be traced with the help of the footage,” a statement quoted the police official as saying.
Those who “violated women’s honour and harassed them will be brought within the ambit of the law”, Kiyani added.
Under Pakistan’s Penal Code, “Whoever assaults or uses criminal force to any woman and strips her of her clothes and in that condition, exposes her to the public view, shall be punished with death or with imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.”
*PPC Section 354 A: Assault or use of criminal force on a woman and stripping her of her clothes.
PPC Section 382: Theft after preparation made for causing death, hurt or restraint in order to commit theft
PPC Section 147: Punishment for rioting
PPC Section 149: Every member of unlawful assembly guilty of an offence committed in prosecution of common object
