LAHORE: The Punjab chief executive has expressed displeasure after a Lahore court granted bail to a man accused of assaulting a female scooty rider, describing the development as “SAD” in an X post on Saturday.
Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif shared screenshots of a Geo News‘ report about the case on her microblogging site after a judicial magistrate granted bail to the suspect, Ghulam Mustafa, against surety bonds worth Rs100,000.
In a separate post, the provincial chief executive said she had personally spoken to the victim and encouraged her to slap the suspect as many times as he had slapped her.
“However, she said that, for her, it was enough that the government had made her feel protected, cared for, and assured that justice was on her side,” the chief minister wrote.
The court ordered that Mustafa be released if he was not wanted in any other case. Mazang police had requested that the accused be sent to jail on judicial remand.
The case relates to an incident on Thursday in which the suspect allegedly attacked the woman on a busy road in Lahore.
CCTV footage of the incident circulated widely on social media, triggering public outrage over the assault and the apparent failure of bystanders to intervene.
The footage showed a man stopping his motorcycle in front of the woman’s scooter before allegedly pulling her hair and repeatedly slapping her as several people watched.
Initial police reports indicated that the woman sustained facial injuries, including a fracture to her nasal bone, during the attack.
A police official said the suspect also threw the woman’s bag to the ground. The bag contained a laptop worth around Rs90,000, which was badly damaged in the incident. The suspect subsequently fled the scene, the official added.
Police traced and arrested the accused with the help of footage and data from dozens of cameras operated by the Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA). Later, he was nominated in a criminal case registered by Mazang police.
