Police officials on Thursday said those arrested for the harassment of a couple in a video that went viral earlier this week are believed to be members of an organised crime gang.

The police have arrested four of the men who are believed to be the perpetrators in a video that went viral on Tuesday. The video depicted a few men assaulting a couple physically and verbally and forcing the woman to strip.

Officials are now saying that many other similar videos have also been recovered from the phones of the suspects that have been arrested. A larger, more thorough investigation is also being conducted to identify other people that have been subject to abuse by these men. The videos indicate that this is not an isolated incident and that this has occurred many times before. The officials believe that this pattern and the modus operandi of the suspects suggests that this was organised crime.

Authorities say the suspects are car and property dealers who rent out flats for short periods of time. It is believed that they keep a set of keys for themselves, and when couples stay in their rented property, they abuse them and make videos of the abuse to use as blackmail.

The investigation is ongoing, and teams have been assigned to look at the matter in more depth.

IGP Islamabad, Qazi Jamil-ur-Rehman told The News, “Ruthless campaign has been initiated against those criminals.”

The police admit that some of the other incidents that occurred were brought to their attention earlier, but nothing was done to address the situation.

According to the officials, four of the men have been arrested and three are still at large. Usman Abrar, other wise known as Usman Mirza, has been arrested alongside three others who have been identified as Hafizur Rehman, Farhan Shaheen Awan, and Madaris Butt. The Golra Police have registered an FIR under section 341 (wrongful restraint), 354A (assaulting and stripping a woman of her clothes), 506 (ii) (criminal intimidation) and 509 (word, act or gesture meant to insult the modesty of a woman) of Pakistan Penal Code against the arrested.

Earlier on Thursday Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke to the IGP Islamabad and sought details about the incident which has caused outrage across the nation. Khan asked a report about the incident be shared with his office.