NAROWAL: Pakistan Railway police have registered a case against 14 unidentified youths for harassing and torturing a woman and her children aboard the Lasani Express.

A complaint registered with the Lahore Pakistan Railway police, Razia Sultan, resident of Fateh Ali Colony of Narowal, said that she boarded the Lasani Express passenger train with her daughters and son to travel to Narowal from Lahore. She alleged that two boys, aged between 20 and 22, started harassing her daughters. She said that when she and her son tried to stop them from molesting her daughters, they attacked her son. She said other passengers intervened and saved her son.

However, she alleged that as soon as the train stopped at the Narang Mandi railway station, around 10 to 12 boys came and attacked her and her children. She said that they punched and kicked them and they were helpless because of the sudden attack. She said that on hearing their screams, passengers in the train rescued them from the youths.

An FIR was registered against 14 unknown boys on the complaint of the woman in Lahore.

Eyewitness passengers Muhammad Kamal and Azeem Akhtar said these young men board the passenger train daily from Narang Mandi, Kala Khatai and Sri Rampur railway stations. They claimed that this was not the first incident of harassment of girls, women and families.

They alleged that these group travel without tickets and Railways personnel and police were also afraid of them.

They said that these youths worked at various factories and shops in Lahore and they routinely abuse travellers in passenger trains between Lahore and Narowal.

Passengers Abdul Shakoor and Farhan Ali said the trains were overloaded and families and female students were not safe from these unruly youth.

They claimed that these young men occupy seats without tickets, refuse to vacate them for families and routinely misbehave and abuse passengers.

They said the Pakistan Railways had failed to provide safe travel facilities to passengers, especially female students and families.

They said that after a video of a young man abusing women in the Lasani Express went viral on social media, female passengers and families were now scared to travel in the train.

Citizens and passengers have demanded that Railways Minister Hanif Abbasi and Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif take immediate notice of this situation.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2025