Shahsawar Khan better known Shahsawar was a popular Pashto musician and actor who left the showbiz industry after being jailed over allegations of rape/kidnapping and joined the tableeghi jamaat.
In a recent video post making rounds on social media, the 26 year old artist says he is returning back to the showbiz industry as no one gave him any attention during the time he spent with the tableeghi jamaat.
Sexual assault charges
On 12 April 2017 Shahsawar Khan got arrested by KPK Police over allegations of kidnapping and raping a woman hailing from Swabi district, and was sent to jail on judicial remand for 14 days.While the court also sent the woman to the Darul Aman and directed the police to conduct medical report of the prosecutor.
The complainant claimed that the singer took her fraudulently and subjected her to sexual abuse. She registered a case at Paharipura police station after which the suspect was arrested and produced at a local court but he got a bail from the Peshawar High Court and pleaded not guilty.
Preaching religion with the Tablighi Jamaat
The singer after this case joined the Tablighi Jamaat and started preaching religion. Videos of him doing dawat-e-tableegh and singing naats and nasheeds soon went viral on social media. He also regretted his past openly.
In a recent interview with Mashaal Radio, the 26 years old artist said, “I belong to Jalbai, Swabi and have spent my life in Karachi. I developed my interest relatively more in art, rather than in education. I then started learning art from Karachi Art Council where Ustaz Zafar Ali Khan was my teacher. Then I started my singing career in Pakhtunkhwa. I have also worked in almost 10 movies which also includes one Urdu movie named Rasmain – which was about different cultural traditions.”
When aksed if he regrets his old career (singing), he said “It isn’t like that. That [career] was also Allah’s giving and this [islamic preaching] is also Allah’s blessing. Everything happens by the will of Allah; nothing happens without his will. The only thing that I regret is that I have wasted my time in vain. I don’t mean to hate on artists or make fun of art, or call them bad; but [i think] my struggle [at that time] was in the wrong way.”
“It isn’t like artists are bad people. Artists teach a lot of great things to our young generations. All the great poets we had in the past weren’t bad people. Their poetry wasn’t bad or misleading. However, our struggle.. the path we were going on, was wrong. And that is what I regret and makes me feel sad.”
Contradiction in his statements
In his recent video, where he confirmed the rumors of him returning to Showbiz to be true, he claimed that the reason he decided his comeback was that none of his fans paid him any attention and no once came to check up on him while he was with the tableeghi jamaat.
On the other hand, when Ishaq Khan asked him during an interview with Mashaal Radio whether his fans still love him like before or not, he replied “No, they love me more than ever. Some call me qari seb, some call me molvi seb, and some call me amir seb. And it makes me feel too happy.”
People on social media are outraged at his decision and calling it nothing but another ‘attention seeking’ stunt. However, there’s no telling if it is for real because the vocals in the video also mismatches with the lip sync; which leads us to think maybe the video is fake. We will wait for any developments in the story and keep you updated.
While we are on it, what are your thoughts about this episode? Let us know in the comments.
