Daily Times

The Punjab government on Friday decided to reprimand senior officials over failure to respond in time to the public assault of a woman at Minar-e-Pakistan on the Independence Day

Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar chaired a meeting at his office in which he expressed strong indignation over some incidents which happened in Lahore recently, including the Minar-e-Pakistan incident. He expressed displeasure over delay in police response and negligence from duties.

The CM instructed the IG to suspend the relevant police officers. Lahore DIG Operations Sajid Kayani, SSP Operations Syed Nadeem Abbas and Additional SP Operations Hassan Jahangir were removed from their posts, while DSP Badami Bagh Usman Haider and SHO Lorry Adda Mohammad Jamil were suspended.

Meanwhile, the project director and deputy director of Greater Iqbal Park have also been suspended from their posts for showing negligence.

Buzdar said the culprits will be handed severe punishments and the victim will be provided justice. He said that police response was delayed. “The people have high expectations from the police and the police have to carry out their duties according to the aspirations of the people,” he said.

Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari said on Friday that 24 men had been taken into custody through geo-fencing and matching record from National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) for harassing and assaulting the female TikToker and her companions.

In a post on Twitter, the minister said “more arrests are expected today” in connection with the “condemnable” incident. She said a police inquiry was also underway against alleged negligence of police officers in the assault case.

Minutes later, following a meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and other senior officials, the provincial police chief said senior police officers had been suspended for negligence and delayed response in dealing with the incident.

“We have suspended SHO and SDPO whereas Divisional SP, SSP Operations and DIG Operations Lahore have been removed from their posts,” Inspector General Inam Ghani wrote on Twitter. He said “strict departmental action will be taken once inquiry committee submits its detailed report on the role and response of other officers.”

Meanwhile, another video showing a man sexually harassing a woman went viral on social media. Two women, with a child seated between them at the back of a rickshaw somewhere in a busy street in Pakistan (many on social media said it was Lahore), can be seen in the video clip. The women are visibly disturbed at the sight of a couple of motorcyclists hounding the rickshaw, catcalling and leering at the women.

One man jumps onto the rickshaw, out of nowhere, and forcibly kisses the woman. Startled, she and the woman beside her scream but no one intervenes. One of the women takes her slipper off and threatens to hit a motorcyclist with it. The woman who was harassed, at one point in time, gets extremely upset and tries to leave the rickshaw in despair but is stopped from doing so by her companion.

The rickshaw appears to be surrounded by men in cars and motorcycles carrying the national flag, which indicates that the incident took place during Independence Day celebrations. The video triggered anger and uproar on social media, with many people calling for the government to take strict action against sexual harassers.