3 Pakistanis arrested for sexual assault at German music fest

Three arrests have been made after 18 women became victims of their sexual assault at a music festival in Germany.

Three Pakistani men, who were seeking asylum in the western city of Darmstadt in Germany, have been arrested after the women filed complaints that they had been improperly touched, fondled and groped during the festival.

The incident had similarities to the attacks in Cologne on December 31 - when a number of young women were targeted in the concourse of the city’s main railway station.

Cops said they were probing whether the men had also robbed the women during the four-day open air music festival.

Initially, three women had filed charges, leading to the arrests of the three men, Pakistani asylum seekers aged 28 to 31, and another 15 women have come forward since.

Germany and the world reeled following reports that as many as 1,000 women had been sexually assaulted -- groped, robbed, intimidated and separated from their friends -- at Cologne’s central train station on New Year’s Eve.

Many of the perpetrators, it was alleged, appeared to be of North African or Arab descent, following which public support in Germany for asylum-seekers dropped, with some criticising German Chancellor Angela Merkel for lifting asylum restrictions for Syrian refugees last summer -- a decision that led to the arrival of 1.1 million migrants and asylum seekers in 2015.

Image: Protests erupted after as many as 1,000 women were sexually assaulted at Cologne’s central train station on New Year’s Eve by perpetrators appearing to be of Arab descent. Photograph: Reuters