By Staff Reporter
RAWALPINDI: Police have arrested three suspects in connection with a disturbing incident in which a young girl’s hair was forcibly cut, an act captured in a video that spread rapidly across social media, prompting outrage and swift law enforcement action.
The video, which began circulating on platforms like Facebook on Tuesday, depicts a man standing over what appears to be a young girl, using scissors to cut her hair while others look on. A subsequent video, purportedly from the victim herself, emerged online, in which she claimed the assault occurred about a month and a half ago in Rawalpindi’s Christian Colony. She alleged that she was beaten and threatened during the ordeal, and that four men were involved.
In a statement issued early Tuesday, the Rawalpindi police described the victim as a “girl” and acknowledged the footage. “A video of a girl being beaten and her hair being cut has come forward, after which a video statement also came forward,” the statement said. It noted that the incident had taken place in areas of Rawalpindi and Islamabad but had not been reported to authorities at the time.
The Rawalpindi City Police Officer, Syed Khalid Hamdani, took immediate notice of the videos, according to the statement. Police reached out to the girl featured in the footage, and at her request, legal proceedings were initiated at the Naseerabad Police Station. “Three accused have been taken into custody in light of the victim’s statement,” the statement added.
Emphasising a zero-tolerance policy toward such offences, the police declared that “crimes pertaining to violence, coercion and exploitation of women would not be tolerated.” The statement quoted . Hamdani as saying, “All the accused involved in the incident will be arrested and punished to the fullest extent of the law.”
A first information report, the initial step in Pakistan’s criminal justice process, was filed under Sections 337V of the Pakistan Penal Code, which addresses the intentional uprooting of hair, and Section 34, which covers acts committed by multiple persons in pursuit of a common intention. The report, registered on behalf of Duty Foot Constable Asad Hussain at the Naseerabad station in the early hours of Tuesday, names four suspects along with “a few other” unidentified individuals.
The filing detailed the viral spread of the video: “A video went viral on social media, including on Facebook, in which some people can be seen forcibly cutting the hair of a girl.” Upon investigation, authorities determined the event occurred in Christian Colony, where the suspects “committed a serious crime by forcibly cutting the girl’s hair and then widely sharing the video on social media.”
Separately, the Islamabad police weighed in on the matter last night, clarifying that the incident unfolded in Rawalpindi rather than in the capital’s Lohi Bher area, as some reports had suggested. “Islamabad police have traced the girl and have recorded her statement,” the department said in its statement. It added that officers had “conducted raids” and detained those involved, but since the crime occurred outside their jurisdiction, “the suspects are being handed over to the police concerned.”
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