Abbottabad police on Tuesday night arrested two men and seized their vehicle after a woman posted a complaint of harassment on her Facebook wall, along with a car photo showing the both the suspects seated in it.
A large number of women in the country across all age groups and classes continue to face violence and endure sexual, mental, and physical abuse despite improvements in education, according to a 2023 report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
The rising number of such cases shows that society is still falling short of actively safeguarding women.
According to the Abbottabad District Police Officer Umar Tufail, a first information report (FIR) has been registered against the accused at Mirpur police station on Wednesday under Sections 294 (any act that is considered obscene in public) and 509-34 (insulting modesty or causing sexual harassment) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The FIR was registered on the complaint of Head Constable Murad Ali at the Jinnah Abad police post, as it mentioned the incident occurred within its limits.
The FIR noted that the woman had shared a post on her Facebook timeline with a photo of the car in which two persons were seated. “The suspects used immoral words for the victim publicly and called her to sit with them in the car,” the FIR read.
DPO Abbottabad said both the suspects had been taken into custody and further interrogation was underway.
In another case involving sexual harassment last month, the Woman University Mardan Vice-Chancellor Prof Safia Ahmad constituted an inquiry committee to investigate a harassment incident that allegedly occurred on the varsity’s Bashkhali campus a few days ago.
Hazrat Bilal, the public relations officer of the vice-chancellor, said that the eight-member committee was constituted after students boycotted classes and held demonstrations against the varsity’s security in-charge for his alleged involvement in the harassment case.
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