PESHAWAR: The Chitral police will produce the alleged harasser of Kalash women in a local court today (Sunday) to get physical remand.

The suspect, Mohammad Ismail, a resident of Mathra area on the outskirts of Peshawar city, had surrendered himself to the police on Thursday night after the involvement of the local elders.

The police have booked him under the Pakistan Penal Code for harassing and assaulting women, restricting their movement, and impersonating a policeman.

The suspect had fled to Mohmand tribal region after a video showing him harass women in Kalash valley of Chitral district went viral on social media attracting national attention.

Deputy Superintendent of Police, Drosh circle, Iqbal Karim, who dealt with the case, told Dawn that the suspect surrendered after the police engaged the local elders to persuade him for it. He said the police had traced the alleged harasser with the help of his mobile phone number.

“Someone provided us with his mobile phone number,” he said without naming the person.

“The Peshawar police extended every possible effort to us in arresting the suspect,” he said, adding that the team formed for the arrest was headed by Drosh station house officer Bulbul Hassan and three women constables.

Mr Karim said the accused was in the transit custody and was being shifted to Chitral, where he would be produced in a local court today (Sunday) for physical remand.

He said the suspect wasn’t a policeman as he claimed in the video and that apparently, he made that claim to scare women.

The DSP said the initial investigations showed that the video was filmed in 2015 and was uploaded on the social media in 2016.

He said it was not clear if the accused or someone else had uploaded the video.

Mr Karim said the Kalash women weren’t ready to report harassment and therefore, the police booked the suspect on their own.

He said the police had deployed a 10-strong tourist squad in Bumburet to help and facilitate tourists and that the squad would monitor tourists to check harassment incident.

The DSP also said the squad would cover other tourist areas as well.

“The suspect had harassed women and therefore, we sent women cops to arrest him just to teach him a lesson,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2018