KARACHI: A first information report (FIR) has been registered against more than a dozen lawyers after YouTuber Rajab Butt was physically assaulted during a court appearance in Karachi on Monday, it emerged on Tuesday.

On Monday, Butt was physically assaulted, allegedly by some lawyers, at the Karachi City Court premises during the hearing of his bail plea in a case registered against him for allegedly hurting religious sentiments. Butt’s lawyer, Mian Ali Ashfaq, said on X that “a few lawyers launched a life-threatening attack on him within the court premises”.

A video of the incident showed Butt, clad in a shirt torn from places, moving through a crowd surrounding him.

The FIR of the incident, a copy of which is available with Dawn, was subsequently registered on the complaint of Butt’s lawyer, Ashfaq. It named Advocate Riaz Ali Solangi, Advocate Abdul Fatah and “another 15-20 lawyers”. It should be mentioned that Solangi is also the complainant in the case registered against Butt for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.

The FIR was regisisted under sections 147 (punishment for rioting), Section 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), Section 382 (Theft after preparation made for causing death, hurt or restraint in order to the committing of the theft), Section 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation), and Section 337-A (Punishment of shajjah) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The complainant said that his client had arrived at City Court at 9am to seek bail in a case registered against him under Section 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the PPC.

“However, when we reached the inner premises near the West building, Solangi and Fatah, along with 15-20 other lawyers, attacked and started beating my client,” he alleged. He further said that his client was injured in the attack.

“The attackers assaulted me as well and other lawyers from my office,” Ashfaq said.

He further added that during the attack, his client Butt was holding a bag containing Rs300,000, which was snatched from him. He said that Solangi later returned the bag, but the cash was missing.

He also said that his client was then forcibly taken to the additional district and sessions judge (Central), where they “threatened to kill my client”.

South Deputy Inspector General of Police Syed Asad Raza told Dawn that so far no one had been arrested.

Advocate Solangi told Dawn on Monday that after obtaining pre-arrest bail on December 20, the YouTuber had uploaded a vlog in which he allegedly used inappropriate language against lawyers in Karachi as well as against him. He claimed Butt was later taken to the Karachi Bar Association committee room after the scuffle, where the YouTuber apologised to the lawyers.

On Monday, Ashfaq had said that the attackers continued to beat him (Butt) despite being repeatedly asked to stop“. “Taking the law into their hands is weakening the reputation of lawyers in the country,“ he added.

Another video had showed Butt walking along with a group of lawyers, who were raising slogans “Karachi Bar Zindabad” (long live Karachi Bar). Among them was also Solangi.

Tiktoker Nadeem Mubarak, also known as Nani Wala, was also present on the occasion and was seen in one of the videos.