Police on Sunday arrested a man accused of stripping naked a 16-year-old girl in the Hashtnagri area of Peshawar, officials told DawnNewsTV.

SSP City Farooq Kokab said that the accused had left the city after the incident and lived in Rawalpindi, Hassan Abdal, Wah Cant and Mardan for short intervals.

"Police were following the accused and conducting raids to arrest him. Finally, he was intercepted and arrested from Chamkani area of Peshawar upon his return to the city," he added.

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According to Wajid Shah, station house officer (SHO) of Shaheed Gulfat Hussain Police Station, the girl was allegedly assaulted by the man, who also stripped her naked and paraded her near her home.

The incident followed a fight between two families — the accused's and the victim's — who had both filed a complaint at the police station, said Shah.

Taking matters into his own hands, the accused — a relative of the victim — had assaulted and stripped her while she was returning home with her mother from the police station, according to the first information report (FIR).

He had run away when people of the area came to the girl's rescue, the FIR, registered under Artice 354-A [assault or use of criminal force to woman and stripping her of her clothes], said.

Besides Peshawar, raids were conducted and security personnel in civvies were deployed in Hasan Abdal, Nowshera and other cities to locate the suspect, a press release issued by Peshawar police said.

The accused was successfully apprehended after police received a tip-off about his whereabouts, it added.

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