Tiktoker records fresh statements in Minar-e-Pakistan harassment case

A Lahore sessions court has granted bail to Iftikhar Ahmed, one of the suspects in the Minar-e-Pakistan harassment case, after the complainant recorded a fresh statement Friday.

“I had lodged a complaint against the accused, Iftikhar Ahmed, on the basis of suspicion and misunderstanding,” she told the court. “Now I am satisfied to his innocence through respectables from the locality and have no objection if Iftikhar is admitted to post-arrest bail.”

The TikToker had lodged an FIR against Iftikhar Ahmed on August 17 at the Lari Adda police station. It included the following sections of the Pakistan Penal Code:

• 147 – punishment for rioting
• 149 – every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object
• 342 – punishment for wrongful confinement
• 354 – assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty
• 395 – punishment for dacoity
• 509 – Insulting modesty or causing sexual harrassment

After her new testimony was recorded, Iftikhar Ahmed was granted post-arrest bail against surety bonds worth Rs100,000. “Investigation of this case is complete and no useful purpose will be served by keeping the accused behind bars,” the court ruled.

The case

On August 18, an FIR was registered against 400 men for harassing, groping, and assaulting a woman at Lahore’s Greater Iqbal Park. The woman said she was there to film a video for her YouTube channel.

According to the TikToker, the men clawed and tore her clothes. Videos that surfaced from the scene showed the woman walking with a crowd behind her before the men surround her. People could be seen raising their mobile phones to take videos and pictures of her and started pushing her around. As the scores of men surrounded her, the woman started screaming frantically.

Another video showed the men throwing the woman in the air.

Here’s a timeline of the investigations:

• August 18: An FIR was registered against 400 men at the Lari Adda Police Station in Lahore for harassing and looting a woman at Minar-e-Pakistan on August 14.
• August 21: The police arrested 104 suspects after identification.
• August 22: TikToker rejected claims the incident was a “publicity stunt”.
• August 25: The Lahore court decided to conduct an identification parade of 104 men.
• September 1: The TikToker identified six men in the identification parade.
• September 11: The court extended the physical remand of six men.
• October 9: Rambo and seven other men were detained by the police.
• October 10: Rambo and complainant’s audiotape surfaces.
• October 12: Tiktoker complains of death threats.