There were no arrests on Saturday after 11 people were injured in a shooting on Friday allegedly by a traffic warden supported by men in police uniforms at the Jaranwala Road toll plaza.
Khurarianwala SHO Rana Atif Khan told The Express Tribune that traffic warden Rana Adnan allegedly refused to pay the toll on Tuesday claiming to be a relative of ‘the Khurarianwala SHO’.
When the toll staff, including supervisor Abdul Jabbar, insisted that he pay to be let through, he went back threatening them with ‘dire consequences.’ On Friday morning at around 2am, two blue vans, one of which displayed a blue emergency light arrived on the scene. The SHO said around 15 people got off the vehicles and shot at the toll staff.
Eleven people were injuried from the firing; including supervisor Abdul Jabbar, in-charge Muhammad Naeem Bhatti, driver Nadeem Bhatti, cook Muhammad Amin, collector Inamullah, Ghazanfar Abbas, Nauman, Allah Nawaz and Amjad. They were taken to the nearby DHQ hospital and Allied Hospital for treatment.
Khurarianwala police registered a complaint filed by Naeem Bhatti.
Bhatti said, “We had only asked the warden to pay the Rs20 toll. He threatened us on Tuesday and then attacked us on Friday.” He added, “We suspect that some of the people who attacked us were elite force personnel. Some were wearing uniforms and the vehicles appeared to be police mobiles.”
However, SHO Khan said that no police personnel were sent in support of the traffic warden. He said, “Police were sent only after reports of the shooting.
We understand that the assailants came on blue vehicles and were wearing black jogging suits, they were not policemen.” He also said that the warden was not a relative of his.
The three suspects named by the complainant; traffic warden Rana Adnan, Ramazan and Khalid got bail before arrest on Saturday.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 15th, 2012.
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