The female TikToker victim in the 2021 Minar-i-Pakistan assault case has pardoned all suspects, it emerged on Monday.
In August 2021, Lahore police had booked hundreds of unidentified persons for assaulting and stealing from the TikToker and her companions at the city’s Greater Iqbal Park on Independence Day.
The incident had come amid renewed focus on violence against women in Pakistan, following the murders of Noor Mukadam and Quratul Ain in July 2021. Videos of the incident had circulated widely on social media, causing huge uproar among celebrities and politicians alike.
Additional session judge Gul Abbas issued an order today of the hearing held on June 25, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com.
According to the order, the victim appeared before the court on June 3 and submitted her affidavit, following which the judge sought arguments at the hearing scheduled on August 26.
In her affidavit statement filed on June 3, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the victim said she did not wish to pursue the case further as she had forgiven “all her suspects for the sake of Allah and his Holy Prophet (PBUH)”.
The female TikToker added that she had “no objection to the suspects’ being acquitted”. She stated she wanted to record the said statement “of her own consent and without any fear or threat”.
Lorry Adda police had registered the first information report (FIR) against 400 unidentified persons for assaulting, molesting and stripping the TikToker on the eve of Aug 14, 2021. Later, the police also arrested an associate of the victim after she accused him of blackmail.
In his media statements, the associate had alleged that it was the TikToker who had been blackmailing him. He had also alleged that the woman implicated him in the FIR after he rejected her idea of minting money from the arrested persons for their release.
Sections 354-A (assault or use of criminal force against a 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 (PPC) had been included in the FIR.
More than 100 suspects had been taken into custody in August 2021. However, 98 of them had been released within weeks after the victim and her team members failed to identify them during an identification parade in Lahore’s Camp Jail.
After six suspects were remanded into police custody, another eight suspects were arrested in October 2021 and were also sent on physical remand.
In Jan 2022, a Lahore sessions court had granted post-arrest bail to a suspect accused of playing a key role in the blackmail and assault in connivance with the principal suspect. The next month, the Lahore High Court (LHC) had granted post-arrest bail to four suspects, including the main suspect.
In November 2022, a sessions court had indicted 16 suspects, including the principal one. The suspects had pleaded not guilty and decided to face the trial.
