MUZAFFARABAD: Three persons were arrested by the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) police on Monday on charges of maltreating and mortifying a young couple in addition to extorting cash and other valuables from them.

The action was taken by the city police station Muzaffarabad after a video clip went viral on social media late on Sunday night in which two persons were seen roughing up a man in the driving seat of a car in an uninhabited satellite town in Langarpura on the outskirts of the state capital.

Amid attempts by the thugs to molest his female colleague on the passenger’s seat, the man was heard repeatedly assuring them of meeting their demand for money.

AJK’s Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr Sohail Habib Tajik told Dawn that after receiving the clip from different persons he forwarded the same to his subordinate officers in Muzaffarabad for an instant action to hunt down the culprits.

Since the police did not know the identity of the tormented couple, they became the plaintiff themselves and lodged an FIR against the suspects under sections 354, 489Z, 489Y, 500, 501, 504 and 506 of Penal Code.

City police station house officer (SHO) Rashid Habib Masoodi told Dawn that the team he constituted to hunt down the suspects captured one of them in the first raid and, on his lead, nabbed the remaining two from their residence shortly afterwards.

Mr Masoodi said police had recovered some six mobile phones, including the one snatched from the couple, from their custody which suggested that they had been involved in illicit activities for long with impunity.

Interestingly, after the recent Murree tragedy, many AJK residents had launched a campaign on social media to attract tourists to their areas to enjoy its “beauty and hospitality”.

However, while the video clip of the satellite town incident made many netizens to cast aspersion of their claims the immediate arrest of the culprits drew wide appreciation for the AJK police, particularly Mr Tajik and Mr Masoodi.

“Had they (accused) not been arrested, I would have lost my faith in the police,” wrote political activist Fatima Anwar Sadozai on Twitter.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2022