28 January 2024 , 08:08
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The ambassador of King Charles' anti-violence charity has been caught on camera appearing to slap and assault a man.
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, a global music star, appears to rain blows on the victim - a backing singer - with a slipper in a hotel room and drags him around by his hair in the shocking clip.
The Pakistani folk singer, 49, last night admitted the assault - and the monarch's charity, the King's British Asian Trust, said it is investigating the matter. The charity, which helps domestic violence victims and runs mental health and poverty initiatives across India and Pakistan, was founded by Charles in 2007.
Khan, who has eight million followers on social media and has met the King several times as ambassador, is seen striking his bandmate in three separate videos. In one, Khan is seen arguing with the man in a green T-shirt, shouting at him: "Where is my bottle? I am going to hit you. Have you seen my bottle?"
The 32-year-old victim looks scared in the pieces of footage. A longer 36-second clip shows the man crouching as Khan strikes him with what appears to be a slipper. He then hits the man on his face and head and screams: "Where is my bottle?" The victim meekly replies: "I did not have it, sir. Which bottle?"
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Members of Khan's entourage stand and watch. The third video, however, shows three bandmates trying to pull Khan away as the men grapple on the floor in the hotel room in Houston, Texas. A source familiar with the incident told Mail on Sunday the argument may have been over a bottle of liquor.
Speaking last night, Khan told the publication: "He was my student and I hit him. He has no objection." The musician, once joined on stage at a sold-out Wembley by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who called him "brother", said his bandmate had lost a bottle of "spiritual water" given to him by a holy man.
"He was my student and I hit him. He lost my special bottle of water, he was responsible for it, he accepted it. And he has no objection to me beating him. No one has an objection if I punished my student because he lost my spiritual bottle of water. He has even asked me for forgiveness," Khan, whose vocals were used in Mel Gibson's 2007 movie Apocalypto, continued.
In Pakistan, the British Asian Trust says it has trained 160 teachers in spotting mental health issues in students. Khan is considered the greatest living singer of a genre of music famous in Pakistan called Qawwali, which has its origins in the poetry and music of Islamic mystics, known as Sufis.
British Asian Trust said: "We take all accusations of abuse seriously and we will look into this urgently."