The case of Ukhano

If you’re an avid social media user, you must have come across several posts regarding a person, Ukhano who has been accused of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour by multiple women. If you’re reading this article, chances are that you’re trying to figure out what exactly is going on.

Let’s start with the basics.

Who is Ukhano?

Ukhano, whose real name is Umar Khan is a video blogger, known for his quirky and fun content. A graduate of the National College of Arts, Umar is spotted at all the it events hanging out and sharing a laugh with all the A-list celebrities. Umar has been part of several notable projects and has also worked with Peshawar Zalmi as their official vlogger. His content is popular among the Millenials.

What is the controversy?

Earlier this week, several women came forward and accused Umar of sexual harassment. The first accusation was made in a Facebook post which has now been removed. But soon the allegations gained traction and hashtags such as #Ukhano, #UkhanoExposed began to trend on Twitter, following which multiple women came forward with their accounts and shared screenshots of Umar behaving inappropriately. The women claimed that Khan would send messages with sexual innuendos and ask them to send “bold” pictures of themselves to him.

This thread has pretty much all the screenshot and harassment claims:

Umar’s response

Soon after the allegations surfaced, Umar came forward with a video in which he said that all allegations against him are false and requested everyone to listen to his video at least once before making a judgment. In his video, he said that he’s worked with a lot of women in the course of his career and is sure that he did not make any one of them feel uncomfortable.

He continued, “The reason I’m making this video is because I owe you guys the truth and the truth is that I know this person and I’ve worked with this person and that is it. Other than that, whatever allegations and claims have been made against me are lies.”

He finished off saying that he has visual evidence to prove his innocence but he doesn’t want to use it because “someone’s life can get ruined because of it.”

Support from peers

Though social media continues to be divided over Umar, several well-known personalities stepped forward to support Umar. Among those was Polish travel blogger Eva Zu Beck, actor/host Anoushey Ashraf and vloggers Mooroo and Irfan Junejo.

Eva Zu Beck

Anoushey Ashraf

Mooroo

Mooroo asked everyone to wait for the full picture before making a judgment. He requested everyone to not be emotional.

Irfan Junejo

Irfan had more of a neutral stance.

The story doesn’t end there. Soon after the harassment allegations surfaced, Ahmad Butt, a singer came forward and alleged that Umar stole the music of a Pashtun music artist Naseer Afridi and sold it to a business called CPIC.

As per Ahmad, “Ukhano had conveyed to the company that Naseer Afridi was aware of this when in reality, he wasn’t. Ukhano received a good sum of money for selling Naseers songs and kept it for himself. Later when Naseer found out from people about his music being used in the videos Ukhano made for that company, he talked to them.”

Ahmad said that the company compensated Naseer for his work. However, the money Umar received is still with him.

All details in this thread:

Umar is yet to respond to these allegations.