Drunk driving: Police arrest teenager for hit-and-run killing

16-year-old accused of killing one labourer, injuring another.

LAHORE:

The police have arrested a 16-year-old for allegedly running over two labourers, killing one and maiming the other, in a state of intoxication.

Adil Muhammad Shafiq, a student of the British Education Training Systems School, is accused of driving the car which ran over Mukammal Khan and Noor Rehman at high speed in Sattukatla on the night of March 7. He then smashed into three cars parked near a petrol pump.

Khan died at the scene, while doctors had to amputate Rehman’s leg due to his injuries. The driver of the car was unhurt, thanks to safety air bags.

Onlookers called the emergency services. However, another car came to the scene a few minutes later and took the driver away before the police arrived.

Police believe that the Adil had been drinking alcohol at a party before the accident. Station House Officer Zulqarnain, who visited the scene, said that there was a strong smell of alcohol in his car.

Delays

Earlier, the families of the victims had voiced fears that the police were favouring the accused because he had not been arrested several days after the incident and in the presence of compelling evidence of his identity.

Police searched the car and found a card from the BETS college with a student number as well as a college certificate. Despite this, they only registered a case against unidentified suspects.

Police said that in tracing the owner of the car that ran over the labourers, they were led to a Shafiq in Gujranwala, but when they visited his house the door was locked and the neighbours said that no one had been home for two days. They then detained some other relatives of the father to put pressure on him to turn in his son.

Inspector Mujahid Hussain, the official in charge of investigation at Satukattla police, said that he could not rule out the possibility that there was someone else in the car along with the driver when he ran over the labourers.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2011.