Peshawar tourist who harassed Kalash women in viral video is from the PTI

The Facebook profile of the man who harassed Kalash women shows that he is a member of the PTI. The Chitral police initiated an inquiry and arrested him late Thursday night. On Tuesday, a video went viral of a tourist filming women in the Kalash Valley despite their repeated calls for him to stop. When the...

The Facebook profile of the man who harassed Kalash women shows that he is a member of the PTI. The Chitral police initiated an inquiry and arrested him late Thursday night.

On Tuesday, a video went viral of a tourist filming women in the Kalash Valley despite their repeated calls for him to stop. When the women try to hide their faces and threaten to call the police, the man identifies himself as a police officer from Peshawar. “I’m in the police. Come here see my ID card,” he says.

The man, whose face is clearly visible for a while in the video, repeatedly asks the women to take a picture with him.

It was previously not clear when the video was shot. Social media users called upon the Chitral administration to take action. Chitral Deputy Commissioner Irshad Sodhar and DPO Mansoor Zaman ordered an inquiry. According to the investigations, the video is two years old and the man has been identified as a resident of Peshawar, Aimal Khan. Policewomen from Chitral came late Thursday night to arrest the suspect in Peshawar.

According to his Facebook account, he is a member of the PTI’s social media team. In one of his photos, he wears a hat bearing the word ‘ISF’, which is the abbreviated form of the PTI’s student wing the Insaf Students Federation.

An FIR was registered against the man on Wednesday.

Sorry not sorry?

On the other hand, the harasser has uploaded two ‘apology’ videos. “People are sharing the video against me,” he says. “Maybe I did something wrong but I have apologised. If someone did not like the video or if it upset them, I apologise to them from the depths of my heart. You can see the video. If you find me violating someone’s honour, you can punish me. I am being harassed – people are calling me from different numbers. Therefore, I also apologise to the DC and DPO for my mistake. I am not a policeman and I have nothing to do with the police. It was a joke and we all were joking. I didn’t do anything wrong. Still, if you think I did something wrong, I apologise.”

How a two-year-old video went viral

On July 19, 2016, Khan uploaded the video to his YouTube channel. He captioned it ‘Xxx vidio in chtral ...aimal khan mathara’.

Two years later, a Facebook page, named ‘Islamabadian’, uploaded the video on the social networking website. The page’s administrator told SAMAA Digital that a Facebook user, who has requested anonymity, sent him the video in a private message.

After that, a local tourist company’s page, named ‘Hunza’, shared the video. In a matter of hours, the video went viral on social media platforms.