LAHORE: The Factory area police arrested on Monday a woman a week after she allegedly thrashed a salesgirl and attacked several other people, including security personnel and the medical-aid officials, at a shopping mall on Walton Road.

The woman reportedly created a scene at the shopping centre for two hours or so even in the presence of the police which was called to seek help. She injured one of the security personnel in the presence of the police officials who remained largely silent on the matter.

A video footage of the incident that went viral on social media showed a woman dragging a salesgirl by her hair and attacking security staff with a paper cutter and an iron rod.

The police, however, arrested the woman on Monday following criticism of ‘inaction’.

The footage showed the suspected woman, identified as Sadaf Tariq from Defence, holding hair of the salesgirl at a lipstick stall of the shopping centre after arguments on a trifle. She also kicked and slapped the salesgirl and the female security officials as well who rushed to the scene to rescue the girl.

Later, the FIR unveiled that the woman also created a mess in the shopping centre when the police were called for help.

“The woman picked up a paper cutter, attacked the male and female staff injuring one of them in the presence of police personnel including SI Arshad who was leading the police team,” reads the FIR.

It stated that as the woman attacked, the salesgirl ran down to the ground floor calling the security staff for help. The woman chased, overpowered and dragged her by her hair despite resistance by the security personnel.

Earlier to this, she had slapped a male sales clerk of another shop and its manager over a petty issue [of price tag].

The police stated in the FIR that the situation again got tense when she attacked a lab’s medical officials who were called for treatment of the [wounded] security official after she injured him with the paper cutter.

She later disappeared hurling threats at the security men and others.

A news website said police reached Sadaf’s house after tracing her car registration number through CCTV footage.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2019