PESHAWAR, July 16: A local court granted bail to eight persons, charged with assaulting and keeping in wrongful confinement few transvestites when they were returning from a musical programme at Bakshu Pull area.

The court presided over by Judicial Magistrate Malik Mohammad Hasnain accepted bail petitions of the accused persons and observed that they were charged with bail-able offences. The court directed the accused to furnish two sureties of Rs50,000 each.

Interestingly, the victims had alleged that they were sexually abused but police registered FIR against the accused only under those sections of Pakistan Penal Code which deal with minor offences.

The arrested persons include Fazal Habib, Mohammad Sarhadi, Fiaz, Abid Ali, Yasir, Sajid, Ibrahim and Syed Mohammad Shah.

The FIR of the occurrence was registered at Khazana police station on July 12 under sections 342 (keeping person in wrongful confinement), 354 (assaulting a woman), 355 (assaulting a person for dishonouring him), 337-V (cutting hair of a person), 506 (criminal intimidation) of PPC.

The complainant in the case was Saeed alias Saeeda, who was part of a group of transvestites who performed at a musical party on the night of July 10. A group of armed persons intercepted them and forcibly took them away when they were returning from the party.

They alleged that the accused cut their hair, beat them and also sexually assaulted them. They claimed that the accused also made their videos through cellular phones. A protest demonstration was also held here by members of Shemale Association against the incident, demanding of the government to provide them protection. Advocate Haji Yar Mohammad appeared for the complainant and said that the accused were involved in heinous and condemnable offence. He said that accused were influential persons, therefore, police had only included those sections of PPC which dealt with minor offences. — Bureau Report