Minar-e-Pakistan assault: Police to identify more suspects from NADRA records

• Hordes of men had sexually harassed a woman at Minar-e-Pakistan on Independence Day. 
• Police say all videos of the assault sent for forensic tests. 
• Police say fingerprint samples from victim's torn clothes sent to lab for identification. 

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LAHORE: More suspects in the Minar-e-Pakistan assault case will be identified with the help of National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), as per the investigation team. 

Hordes of men sexually harassed a woman at the Minar-e-Pakistan on Independence Day. Video clips showing the woman being beaten, manhandled and molested by a crowd of hundreds sparked anger across the country. 

The investigation unit briefed the prosecution about the updates in the case. All videos have been sent for forensic tests and fingerprint samples from the victim's torn clothes have been sent to laboratories, the prosecution team was told. 

The investigation team said that more suspects in the case will be identified through NADRA's records, adding that the police will seek a judicial remand of the suspects after an identity parade is held. 

Victim narrates ordeal

Narrating the ordeal she went through in an interview with Daily Pakistan, the woman had said that the mob began by wanting to take a selfie with her and her companions, who had gone to the Greater Iqbal Park in Lahore to make a TikTok video.

"It was okay as far as taking a selfie goes [...] but they soon pushed the whole group to a fenced area, and later it was torn down and everyone came pouring in," she had said.

As the mob continued to harass the group, the woman said a point came when a small pond came. She thought to herself that maybe that is what she should do: jump into the water. "My team kept telling me to jump, but I couldn't."

Horrifically, she went on to narrate how the group even called the Police Helpline number, 15, but to no avail.

"I was tortured from around 6:30pm to 9pm," she had said, adding that the mob kept tugging at her hair and propping her up as she lost balance, saying, "she must be faking it, she must be okay".

"If a woman is not safe in her Pakistan, in her own city, then she is safe no where," she had said, between sobs.

She said that people continued to touch her and treat her like a "play thing".

"There is no part of my body which is not bruised," she added.

Punjab suspends cops for neglecting to respond to woman's assault at Minar-e-Pakistan

Last week, the Punjab government reprimanded five police officials for failing to respond in time to the public assault of a woman at Lahore's Minar-e-Pakistan on Independence Day.

Chief Minister Usman Buzdar had last week presided over a meeting Friday to review the progress made in the investigation so far. Punjab IG Inam Ghani presented a report, in which the role of police officials was also discussed.

The chief minister had instructed the IG to suspend the concerned police officers. Lahore DIG Operations Sajid Kayani, SSP Operations Syed Nadeem Abbas and Additional SP Operations Hassan Jahangir were removed from their posts, while DSP Badami Bagh Usman Haider and SHO Lorry Adda Mohammad Jamil were suspended.

The provincial government had also suspended the projector director and deputy director of the Greater Iqbal Park.