Three foreign tourists had cycled from Karachi to Lahore along the N-5 Highway. It was a normal trip for them until Monday morning when a police vehicle arrived where they were having breakfast and started shouting at them.

In a viral video on social media, an officer from Punjab police manhandled them when one of the tourists refused to obey her orders. He took away their camera and misbehaved with them.

More than one-minute showed one of the tourists sprayed pepper spray on a policeman when he tried to chase them.

The video was re-shared by many people on X, formerly known as Twitter, prompting the Punjab police to issue a clarification.

‘Tourists refused to take security’

“It is important to tell that actually what transpired and why did it happen,” Rizwan Omer Gondal, the Rahim Yar Khan DPO, said in a two-minute video uploaded by the Punjab Police Official on X on Tuesday.

He was accompanied by a fellow policeman in the video.

The incident involved three tourists from the United Kingdom, Italy, and Iran.

According to Gondal, they were intimated by the Sindh police that three tourists had come to Punjab from Karachi. He added that tourists were provided security as per the protocol.

“One of the tourists belonged to a country where nine Pakistanis were killed. For that reason, it was more important to provide them security. But they refused to take the security,” he said.

Later, the DPO claimed that Rahim Yar Khan ASP Khurram and Sadiqabad AC went to the tourists and explained the situation.

Gondal went on to add that the tourists thanked police.

“Punjab police is committed to protecting this area. A successful operation was conducted in the riverine area in this area as well. For that reason, it was important to provide foolproof security to our tourists.”

‘We are at National Highway, not Kashmore’

The investigation against the police officer who misbehaved with tourists has been started, Geo News reported.

“I have been recently cycling to Karachi from Lahore along the N5 Highway. Yesterday we were sitting here having breakfast with no problems and there was a police escort with us already. They were fine. No problems,” one of the tourists told the news channel.

After a few minutes, he said that another police vehicle arrived whom they did not recognise. “They started shouting at us to get up with no explanation. But we are on the National Highway-5,” he said and added that it was not Kashmore.

“If they are saying that we were trying to go to Kashmore, this is incorrect. We were assaulted,” he said and reiterated that they were on the national highway.

The lady tourist shared the same account of the story. She said that the policeman stole her friend’s camera and grabbed them when they refused to get up.