Lahore: Female TikToker ‘harassed, molested’ on Independence Day

Lahore police on Tuesday registered a case against hundreds of unidentified persons for assaulting and stealing from a female TikToker and her companions at the city’s Greater Iqbal Park on Independence Day.

TikToker has alleged that her clothes were torn and she was thrown into the air by hundreds of people who also assaulted her on the occasion of Independence Day here, media reports said on Tuesday.

In the first information report (FIR) registered at the Lorry Adda police station, the complainant stated that she, along with six companions, were filming a video near Minar-e-Pakistan on Independence Day when around 300 to 400 people “attacked us”.

She said that she and her companions made a lot of effort to escape from the crowd. Observing the situation, the park’s security guard opened the gate to the enclosure around Minar-e-Pakistan, the FIR quotes her as saying.

“However, the crowd was huge and people were scaling the enclosure and coming towards us. People were pushing and pulling me to the extent that they tore my clothes. Several people tried to help me but the crowd was too huge and they kept throwing me in the air,” she said.

She further stated that her companions were also assaulted. During the struggle, her ring and earrings were “forcibly taken”, besides a mobile phone of one of her companions, his identity card and Rs15,000 that he had on his person.

“The unidentified persons assaulted us violently,” the complainant added.

The FIR was registered under sections 354 A (assault or use of criminal force against woman and stripping her of her clothes), 382 (theft after preparation made for causing death, hurt or restraint in order to commit the theft), 147 (rioting) and 149 (unlawful assembly) of the Pakistan Penal Code.