A Lahore sessions court on Saturday granted pre-arrest bail to three schoolgirls nominated in a police complaint for allegedly torturing their classmate at a private school in the city.

A video clip of the alleged torture, doing the rounds on social media, showed a group of four girls punching and kicking another girl.

On Friday, a first information report was registered on the complaint of the victim’s father Imran Younis, who stated that his daughter was studying in Scarsdale American International School located in BB Block of the Defence Housing Authority (DHA), Lahore.

The complainant claimed in the FIR — a copy of which is available with Dawn.com — that the prime suspect was a drug addict, who “had offered my daughter a dose of a drug to inhale in the school, which she refused to do, and as a result, she was badly tortured”.

In the latest development today, Additional Sessions Judge Chaudhry Zafar Iqbal took up the bail plea filed by three of the suspects.

Advocate Mian Rab Nawaz, who appeared on behalf of the three girls, claimed that the victim was a drug addict herself and wanted to engage his clients in the illegal act.

“My clients are being implicated falsely,” the counsel maintained.

Nawaz added that his clients were ready to cooperate with the authorities in the investigation.

After listening to the arguments, the judge granted pre-arrest bail to three girls against surety bonds worth Rs50,000 each and barred authorities from arresting the petitioners until Jan 30.

The FIR

The FIR quoted the victim’s father — Imran Younis — as saying that his daughter was a student of the Scarsdale American International School located in BB Block of the Defence Housing Authority (DHA). He alleged that one of the four girls involved in the attack was carrying a dagger.

Younis said one of the girls was a boxer who hit his daughter in her face while another kicked her, causing injuries to her face. Another girl tried to strangulate his daughter, he said, adding that the video clip was sufficient evidence to initiate legal action against the attackers.

He said his daughter was traumatised following the attack and the video clip caused further mental torture to him and his family.

He added that his daughter had also recorded a video of her class fellows taking drugs in the school.

“Later, she (A) showed me the clip that I shared with the father of that girl (prime suspect),” Imran said, adding that the suspects had been nurturing a grudge against his daughter since then and planned an assault on her.

He further alleged in the FIR that the attackers also snatched a gold chain and a locket from his daughter during the attack.

He said he also approached the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for action against those who uploaded the video clip of the assault on his daughter on social media.