LAHORE: A court on Friday granted police five-day physical remand of four suspects facing allegations of abduction and sexual assault on two foreign women.

On Thursday, police had booked five suspects on charges of kidnapping for ransom and sexually assaulting two foreign women, who were nationals of the Netherlands and Venezuela. Subsequently, four of them were arrested.

According to the FIR, the women were abducted by the suspects, including a close relative of a senior political personality, who demanded ransom and subjected them to sexual assault during captivity.

On Friday, the investigating officer from the Defence C Police Station produced four of the suspects, with their faces covered with masks, before Judicial Magistrate Azhar Mehmood at the Cantonment Courts.

At the outset of the hearing, the magistrate instructed the suspects to remove their masks.

A public prosecutor asked the magistrate to grant police 14-day physical remand of the suspects. He said the prime suspect had been identified by the victims. He added that the incident had brought disrepute to Pakistan. The relative of a senior political personality was among the suspects handed over to the police.

The magistrate, however, granted police physical remand of the suspects for five days. He also directed the investigating officer to produce the suspects before the court on July 8 on the completion of their remand.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2026