LAHORE: A disturbing video clip of a young man sexually harassing another girl on the Independence Day in Lahore went viral on social media on Friday and it could be an eye-opener for those who were blaming the TikToker girl for her harassment at the Minar-i-Pakistan.

The girl in the new video is seen sitting along another woman and child on the back of a motorcycle-rickshaw when she is attacked by a young man, triggering an outrage on social media days after the incident.

In the video, the video-maker is heard doing a commentary while recording the footage of two women. As the face of the young woman is turned away in a possible attempt to not to look at the men stalking them, a young man is seen climbing onto the back of the three-wheeler and kissing her. He disappears suddenly, leaving the girl in a shock and anger while the other men, instead of nabbing the harasser, are heard cheering at the shameful act.

Moments later, the frightened girl feels more insecure as she notices more young men preparing to attack her. She tries to jump out of the moving three-wheeler but her female companion (probably her mother) stops her from taking the risk, fearing the worse.

The video footage further shows another young man trying to reach the girl but he disappears when the elder woman warns him that she would beat up him with her shoe she is holding then.

Fearing the increasing risk of physical/sexual violence from more youngsters, the family asks the driver of the rickshaw to accelerate its speed and take them to a safer place.

The footage shows the rickshaw driver making helpless efforts to take it out of the rush of the young motorcyclists who are continuously stalking the women and harassing them.

The new video clip of public harassment of the women on the Independence Day has raised many questions about the prevailing laws and the harassment of the youngsters towards women at public places.

It has surfaced at a time when Ayesha Akram’s incident of being the victim of harassment is still a trend on social media networks.

Inspector General of Police Inam Ghani took notice of the sexual assault on the girl travelling on the motorcycle-rickshaw and directed the capital city police officer (CCPO) to take action on it and submit a report to him.

He directed the CCPO to take help from the cameras of the Punjab Safe City Authority to trace the culprits and use all other options to arrest them.

The police authorities said they were trying to reach the new victim family to get their complaint for registration of a case against the offenders.

The police would take help from the Federal Investigation Agency to get details of those also who uploaded the video clip.

The police teams were directed to identify and trace those young men from the registration number of their motorcycles who could be seen in the video clip.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2021