Woman wasn’t coerced into apologising: ASP

Lahore cop says harassers in mob have been identified

Bureau Report

LAHORE: Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Syeda Shehrbano Naqvi — who is the sub-divisional police officer at Gulbarg Lahore — Monday said the woman harassed by an enraged mob in the city’s Ichhra Bazaar was not coerced into apologising for wearing the shirt with Arabic script.
The cop added that the woman, who was later seen seated between two bearded clerics in one of the videos, was shifted to a safe location and her consent was taken before meeting those men.

“We did not coerce the woman into saying anything whatsoever. The consent was taken, she said what she said on her behalf,” ASP Shehrbano said when speaking during a private news channel’s program.

The ASP’s remark came in response to a question about why the woman was asked to apologise when she was not at fault in the situation, particularly after it was pointed out by social media users.

On February 25, the woman was saved by the law enforcers just a few minutes after being encircled and harassed by an angry crowd that wanted to punish her for allegedly wearing a dress that they thought was blasphemous as it adorned “holy verses” as the print.

Upon receiving information about the incident, the Punjab Police — led by ASP Shehrbano, arrived at the scene to take the woman into their custody, saving her from the charged crowd.

The cop said she was not on social media and had no idea that the video had gone viral because this was not the first time she was dealing with a case of such a nature.

“This happens every day almost. A similar situation unfolded in Firdous Market two weeks ago outside a mosque. Earlier, three other incidents had taken place in Ichhra as well. For us, it was like we had to do it and put our lives at risk,” she said.