LAHORE: The police arrested on Tuesday three key suspects in the case of sexual harassment of a girl riding a rickshaw during the Independence Day celebrations, after identifying them through social media video clips and Safe City Authority cameras, Dawn learnt reliably on Tuesday.

During preliminary investigation, the police had identified four suspects, including the man who jumped onto the moving rickshaw and kissed the girl by force. They were identified through the video clips and the CCTV cameras of the Safe City Authority, a police official said.

About the incident, he said the group of motorcyclists harassing the girl in rickshaw had arrived in the city from Sheikhupura and Jaranawala.

Four more rape cases reported in city

The official said the police teams were in the native town of the prime suspect for his arrest.

“The man who kissed the girl in motorcycle-rickshaw was also in the same group of offenders,” the police official said, adding teams from the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) were separately investigating the case.

He said those arrested also included the man who tried to approach the young girl but the women sitting next to her showed him a shoe as a warning.

The issue of harassment of women by groups of youngsters was highlighted when video clips of sexual assault on a TikToker, Ayesha Ikram, surfaced on Saturday last, sparking countrywide condemnation.

Earlier in the day, Punjab police Inspector General Inam Ghani appeared on a private TV channel and said the police were yet to identify the prime suspect in the case.

Meanwhile, the complaints of sexual violence against women continued to surface in the provincial capital as four such incidents were reported during the last 24 hours and the police registered all these cases.

In Johar Town, a man allegedly raped his 16-year-old daughter, while in Nawakot, a teenage boy sexually assaulted a minor girl.

Similarly in Shadbagh, a mother of four children was allegedly raped by a man.

The Lorry Adda police also registered a case against a young man for allegedly raping a girl who was in a search of job.

The police said the suspect had promised the girl to help her in securing a job and then sexually assaulted her.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2021