KARACHI: Police in Pakistan’s Faisalabad district said on Wednesday they were investigating new evidence in a case in which four women were allegedly stripped before being tortured, saying authorities were examining CCTV footage and mobile videos to ascertain the truth of the case.
Five men were arrested on Monday and Tuesday on charges of assaulting a group of women, stripping them naked and filming them in a marketplace in Faisalabad. Mobile phone videos of the incident were widely shared on social media and showed the naked women being manhandled outside a shop as a large crowd watched.
According to an initial police report, the women went to the area to collect garbage on Monday at around 10:30am. When they entered one of the stores in the market and asked for water, the shop owner accused them of trying to commit robbery. The women said they were subsequently beaten up, stripped, then dragged out on the road as people made their videos "in naked condition," the police report said.
New CCTV footage that emerged after the filing of the police report showed the women stripping themselves.
Imran Mehmood, Faisalabad’s regional police officer, urged people to stop "victim blaming" after the emergence of the new videos, saying no conclusion could be drawn just by looking at CCTV footage.
“We will see if the women stripped themselves naked on their own or someone forced them to do it since the footage has no sound. We will examine all the video clips together to get to the bottom of the incident,” he told Arab News, adding: “People should avoid victim blaming before the relevant authorities reach a conclusion.”
Mehmood said his department was investigating the case on merit.
“At the moment, there are three well established facts,” he said. “The first crime which the arrested individuals committed was illegal confinement of these women, second was mishandling, and third was torturing them.”
The police official said neither the shopkeepers nor anyone among the crowd had called the police to report the case, which was their primary responsibility.
“When all of this was happening, no one bothered to stop it or inform the police,” he said. “We took action after we found out about the incident through our social media team.”
New CCTV footage, he added, would only determine the application of Section 354-A of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) that deals with “assault or use of criminal force against woman and stripping her of her clothes.”
Such acts are punishable by death or imprisonment for life along with financial penalty.
According to the police complaint, a copy of which is available with Arab News, 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 PPC.
Pakistan police say probing new evidence in case of four women 'stripped' and tortured
https://arab.news/6g63c
Pakistan police say probing new evidence in case of four women 'stripped' and tortured
- Five men were arrested earlier this week allegedly for assaulting, stripping and filming a group of women in Faisalabad market
- New CCTV footage that emerged after the filing of the initial police report showed the women stripping themselves
UN Security Council condemns Islamabad mosque bombing claimed by Daesh
- The Council urges accountability, calls for cooperation with Pakistan
- A suicide bomber targeted the mosque during prayers, killing 32 people
ISLAMABAD: The United Nations Security Council said on Friday it condemned a suicide bombing at a mosque on the outskirts of Islamabad that killed at least 32 people, calling the attack “heinous and cowardly” and urging accountability for those responsible.
The blast targeted the Qasr-e-Khadijatul Kubra mosque and imambargah in the Tarlai Kallan area during Friday prayers on Feb. 6, when mosques across the country were packed with worshippers. Daesh claimed responsibility, saying one of its militants detonated an explosive vest inside the congregation.
In a press statement issued by Council President James Kariuki of the United Kingdom, members of the 15-nation body expressed “deepest sympathy and condolences” to the families of the victims and to the government and people of Pakistan.
“The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the heinous and cowardly suicide bombing terrorist attack,” the statement said, reaffirming that “terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.”
The Council underlined the need to hold “perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors” accountable and urged all states to cooperate actively with the Pakistan government in accordance with international law and relevant UN resolutions.
Pakistan, which is currently serving as a non-permanent member of the Security Council for the 2025–2026 term, has faced intense militant violence in recent years, including attacks claimed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, Balochistan Liberation Army and Daesh affiliates.
The administration in Islamabad said the day after the attack that a police officer was killed and four suspects were arrested in overnight raids in the northwestern cities of Peshawar and Nowshera.
Among those detained was an Afghan national alleged to have worked for Daesh and to have masterminded the bombing, authorities said.
The Security Council reiterated that acts of such militant violence were criminal and unjustifiable regardless of motivation and reaffirmed the need for states to combat threats to international peace and security in line with the UN Charter and international law.
Earlier this week, Pakistani religious scholars also condemned the bombing at a meeting presided over by Religious Affairs Minister Sardar Muhammad Yousuf, saying the attack was contrary to Islamic teachings.
