Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad police on Wednesday dropped Test cricketer Yasir Shah’s name from the first information report (FIR) of a rape case, saying the complainant had withdrawn her allegations against him. Last month, Shah and his friend Farhan — the main suspect — were named in a case concerning the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl. The case was registered in the Shalimar police station under section 376, 292-b and 292-c of Pakistan Penal Code in response to a complaint lodged by a resident of F-10. In the statement released today, Shalimar police said that the cricketer’s name was included in the FIR due to “misrepresentation”. Police said Shah had “no links” to the case, claiming that the complainant had also asked to remove the cricketer’s name from the case. Meanwhile, an Islamabad trial court rejected the request of Farhan for pre-arrest bail. After the court’s decision, the accused fled from the courtroom and officials were unable to arrest him.

Later in the day, Shah heaved a sigh of relief on the development and said “the truth has prevailed.” He said that the harassment case against him had been dismissed with the support and prayers of his fans, family and the Pakistan Cricket Board. “It would not have been possible without their trust. I am a representative of Pakistan. Whoever tries to defame me is defaming the country,” he added. Shah said he was devastated in the aftermath of the incident, but refrained from contesting “personal vendettas and intended to take this through the courts of law to expose the truth”. He said only the haters of the country could stoop so low and indulge in levelling such allegations for for personal interests. “I’m also in the process of filing a case for defamation against the ones who are involved in this,” he said.

In the initial FIR registered in December, the woman said she took her 14-year-old niece, who is a matric student, to a gathering in Lahore which was hosted by Shah, who she said was her acquaintance. She said that two to three months after returning, her niece seemed “unwell and disturbed”. “After continuously asking her about it, she said that at Shah’s house, his friend Farhan took her mobile number and after talking to her a few times, claimed to be her friend,” the complainant had said. Farhan also used to make the girl talk to Shah on WhatsApp, she had claimed. “My niece told me that on August 14, when she was returning from tuition, Farhan made her get into a taxi and took her to a flat in F-11,” the aunt had said.

At the flat, Farhan sexually assaulted her at gunpoint and also made a video, according to the FIR. He told her that if she told anyone about what had happened, he would make the video go viral and kill her, the complainant said, adding that Farhan also got Shah to threaten the teenager. “Yasir [Shah] said that he was an international and famous player and threatened her with legal action,” the woman had said. The complainant had alleged that Shah continued to threaten her through Farhan, adding that there were audio recordings of this.