HARIPUR: A group of villagers tortured two boys and forced them to walk in the streets naked in the Khalabat Township here on Saturday.

A video of the incident was later released on social media platforms.

The police said that the boys were stripped naked by a minor resident’s relatives and friends to revenge his “molestation” on Dec 1.

SHO of the Khalabat Township police station Raja Mumtaz confirmed the incident.

He quoted the boys as claiming that 12 residents “kidnapped” them from a market and drove them to a house under construction in the Hajiabad Mohallah of Padhana village, where they were beaten up and sexually harassed.

The boys added that the kidnappers shaved their eyebrows and heads and blackened their faces with used automobile engine oil before making them walk naked in the streets.

They insisted that local elders intervened and helped them go away.

The SHO said that the police had booked the accused under sections 365,355,506, 337-VI, 292, 147,149 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 53 of the Child Protection Act.

He said that six accused had been taken into custody, while the rest were expected to be arrested by night.

Mumtaz said that both the boys were named in an FIR registered by the City Police Station for kidnapping and molesting a 12-year-old boy from the area on Dec 1.

He said that the stripping act was carried out by the molestation victim’s family members and friends to take revenge from the two boys.

The SHO also revealed that both the boys were arrested and handed over to the City Police Station for investigation into the molestation charge against them.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2024