Foiled: ‘Kidnapping’ attempt turns out to be botched ‘car-napping’

No case registered against the unidentified robbers

RAWALPINDI: An attempt to steal a loaded pick-drop van on Thursday failed miserably after its engine was turned off by a vehicle tracking company. Two of the passengers, however, were injured after jumping out of the van.

Initial reports on social media incorrectly identified the incident as a kidnapping attempt. Two unidentified men, both armed, had tried to steal the van, which was used to pick and drop staffers of NESCOM Hospital.

The men intercepted the van at Azeem Colony in Khayaban-e-Sir Syed, Sector-IV, in the Pirwadhai police jurisdiction at around 8:45am.

The gunmen also fired into the air before getting in the van, with the driver and three nurses still onboard.

Soon after, two of the three nurses jumped out of the moving van, sustaining injuries in the process. The injured nurses, identified as Fakhera and Zainab, were taken back to NESCOM Hospital for treatment.

The vehicle had a tracker in it and the engine was turned off by the service provider when it was in Asghar Mall Scheme. At this pont, the carjackers got off the vehicle and fled on foot, a police officer said.

He underscored that the incident did not seem to be a kidnapping bid because the carjackers let the van driver, Hamid, and the other nurse, Asima, go unharmed.

The Pirwadhai police had not registered a case against the unidentified carjackers.

Pirwadhai police Station House Officer (SHO) Chaudhry Riaz informed that two armed culprits tried to snatch the vehicle from the driver and the attempt was foiled.

He said it was not an incident of kidnapping rather an attempt to take away the van.

“We have recovered the vehicle,” he said, adding that the owner of the vehicle, Malik Dilawar Rashid, submitted an application with the police stating that he does not want to initiate any legal action over the incident as his vehicle was safely recovered by the police.

At the same time, the SHO said the police have tracked down the carjackers and are sending teams to arrest them.

City Police Officer Israr Ahmed Khan Abbasi also said that the incident was an attempted carjacking rather than kidnapping.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2016.