The Faisalabad Police on Tuesday said it arrested five men suspected of beating and stripping women in the city’s Bawa Chak Market on Monday.
The development was shared by the Punjab Police in a tweet.
The arrests were made after videos of men stripping and beating women in the city made rounds on social media, prompting Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar to take notice.
The police said further investigation was under way and they were reviewing the incident from every angle.
According to police they had arrested two suspects last night. They had added that they were making efforts for arresting the perpetrators of the incident as they had received many complaints.
According to the FIR, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the complainant, a garbage-picker, went to Bawa Chak Market with three other women to collect garbage on Monday at around 10:30am.
She told police that they were thirsty and went inside a shop, Usman Electric Store, and asked for a bottle of water from one of the suspects, Saddam, whom they identified as the owner of the shop. But Saddam began shouting at them, accusing them of entering his shop with the intention to steal, the FIR said, adding that other suspects also reached the shop upon hearing him shouting.
They began beating the four women, stripped them and dragged them through the market. "They continued to beat us for around an hour and made our videos in naked condition," the FIR quoted the complainant as saying. Later, some family members of the victims reached the market and passersby gathered at the spot who pleaded to the suspects to let the women go, according to the FIR.