LAHORE: Circulation on social media of a footage showing a woman in a most humiliating state recorded in Lahore has led to public outrage, amid a police version that denies any blame for the incident.

The footage showed a woman who appeared to be showing a policewoman that she was not hiding anything in her dress. There’s a man’s voice in the background but it is not clear what is being said.

The scene, recorded by a mobile phone camera, shows the woman taking off her clothes as the policewoman looks on without in any way trying to stop the act unfolding before her.

Explaining the “background” of the clip, Iqbal Town SP Omar Farooq said a police team headed by an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI), Intzar Hussain, had raided the house of a drug addict, Abdul Ghaffar, on Monday.

He said the drug addict who had been booked in a number of cases for his criminal activities, was not present in his house when the raid was conducted.

Ghaffar’s wife offered resistance to the police team, including women officials, when they tried to search the house.

Later, the SP said, the woman as a tactic to avoid arrest, suddenly took off her clothes in the presence of police officials.

He admitted the ASI filmed the incident, adding that he did so “just to save himself from any blackmail” by the woman who had also been wanted in drug selling cases.

He said it was normal for such “criminal women” to level rape or harassment allegations against policemen to avoid legal action.

Mr Omar said the Iqbal Town police later lodged a case against the woman for indulging in obscene act and arrested her.

To a question about uploading of the footage on social media, the SP said, the police inquiry showed that ASI Intazr had shared the clip with his colleague Najam who was posted at Civil Lines police station.

He said it seemed that Najam had released the footage to the media or on social medial just for amusement.

“Both the police officials have been suspended from service for releasing the footage of the woman”, the SP said.

The lack of intervention on the law enforcer’s part makes it a bit difficult to readily agree to the police version of the event which said the woman had abruptly come up with the act to escape arrest.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2017