Swabi police have arrested a TikToker who was allegedly making videos while dressing as a girl and uploading them to his account to “mislead people, especially the youth”, senior police officials said on Sunday.

Swabi Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Ijaz Abazai and Saidul Amin, Station House Officer (SHO) at Swabi city police station, told Dawn.com that the TikToker was filming videos while dressing as a woman and “striking controversial poses”.

“There was severe resentment and anxiety among society,” SHO Amin said. “Aamir Khan, the in-charge of Bamkhel outpost, traced the TikToker, and police have taken immediate action and arrested the suspect, a resident of Bamkhel.”

A first information report (FIR) has been filed against the TikToker at the Swabi city police station — available with Dawn.com — stating that the police came to know that he was making videos performing obscene acts on social media, “which had a very bad impact on society”.

The FIR was registered under Section 294 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which “makes it an offence to commit any obscene act or sing, recite, or utter obscene songs, ballads, or words in or near a public place to the annoyance of others, punishable with imprisonment up to three months, a fine, or both.”

After being arrested, the suspect confessed to the crime and promised to refrain from such immoral activities in the future.

The TikToker said in a video recorded by police: “I belong to Jafarkhail, a Mohallah of Bamkhel village. I was making videos and uploading to my TikTok account. I will not make such videos in the future.”

SHO Amin said that the content creator had been presented in a local court and “would face the law of the land”.

DSP Abazai said that it was very sad that he was making videos in Swabi’s traditional chail, a chador proudly worn by women in the district. Aziz Manerwal, a renowned writer, told Dawn.com about the significance of the chail.

“No one can deny the importance of the Swabi chail. It has cultural and traditional significance,” he said.

“The women here wear it with great pride. It is said that a battle took place here in history, and when women placed their white shawls on the dead bodies of their husbands, they would create red dots, and since then, women here have been wearing white shawls with red dots.”