Police records show that Lahore has recently seen an increase of 300 per cent in the registration of cases of sexual violence. Geo News reported that the increase in registration of such FIRs has been noticed after the Minar-e-Pakistan sexual assault case in which more than 400 men had molested a woman.
According to police, 642 cases have been registered in the last one and a half month. 323 FIRs were registered in August and 319 in September, as per the police records.
DIG Investigation Shariq Jamal Khan was quoted as saying that sexual assault incidents used to take place before as well, but women would shy away from coming forward to register a case. This has however changed after the Minar-e-Pakistan sexual assault incident, and more women are now registering cases against sexual violence. He added that the police had to discard 110 cases after they turned out to be false.
Earlier this month, five accused in the Minar-e-Pakistan sexual assault case were identified by the survivor, while three have confessed to the crime. Lahore police Thursday issued an update on the case.
A total of 104 men were arrested for assaulting TikToker Ayesha Akram in front of Minar-e-Pakistan on Independence Day.
The suspects identified by the woman include Shehryar, Mehran, Abid, Arsalan, Sajid, Iftikhar and others. The survivor had told the police that 12 to 15 men were involved in the assault.
The sexual assault of a woman by more than 400 men came to the fore when a video from the incident went viral on social media. Following social media uproar, an FIR was registered against hundreds of unknown persons for molesting a woman at Minar-e-Pakistan and stealing from her and her companions.
