Lahore, Feb 26: In a shocking development, a radical mob assaulted a woman in Lahore, Pakistan as they thought she committed blasphemy by wearing a dress with Arabic calligraphy. The mob, led by Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan members, felt that the colorful Arabic text on the white dress was Quranic verses.
This was considered blasphemy, which is punishable by death in Pakistan.
The incident took place when she came to a restaurant in Ichhra Market in Lahore and a mob gathered who assaulted her. As the situation started to escalate with the fear of mob lynching, police arrived at the scene and escorted the woman out from the spot.
Videos of the incident have gone viral on social media, which show a female police officer escorting the woman. Punjab Police IG Dr. Usman Anwar praised the ASP for saving the woman, saying that the female police officer put her life in danger to rescue a woman from a violent crowd. "ASP Syeda Shehrbano Naqvi, the brave SDPO of Gulbarg Lahore, put her life in danger to rescue a woman from a violent crowd. For this heroic deed, the Punjab Police has recommended her name for the prestigious Quaid-e-Azam Police Medal (QPM), the highest gallantry award for law enforcement in Pakistan", the IG said.
It is pertinent to mention that the dress had random Arabic words like beautiful, sweet etc and there was no Islamic verse on the dress the woman was wearing. The dress was from Saudi Arabian label Shalik Riyadh, which was launched during Ramazan in 2022. “The best Ramadan 2022 collection has arrived,” Shalik Riyadh had captioned while posting an image of the dress on Instagram.
On the other hand, the victim woman said, “It was an accident. I’m sorry for what happened, and I’ll be more careful in the future,” she said. She added that as a Sunni Muslim, she would never disrespect Islam."
After the visuals went viral, some Pakistani netizens condemned the incident. However, some of them warned fashion labels against using such designs, as they are easily misunderstood, creating such incidents.