Rawalpindi police expands campaign to mechanics who alter motorbikes

CTO Yousaf Shahid urges parents to keep an eye on their children involved in one-wheeling

RAWALPINDI: With youngsters continuing one-wheeling in the city despite an ongoing crackdown, the Rawalpindi police has succeeded in tackling the dangerous practice by targeting mechanics who alter the motorbikes which are then used for the stunts.

“Police have launched an action against the motorbike mechanics who prepare and alter motorcycles for one wheeling,” Yousaf Shahid, the chief traffic officer of Rawalpindi police, told The Express Tribune on Sunday.

The CTO noted that mostly young boys, usually those in their late teens or early twenties, were involved in one-wheeling on either side of Sehri.

The Rawalpindi police have been playing  cat and mouse game with youngsters practising the dangerous maneuvers on the roads of the garrison city. Over the past week, the traffic police arrested several youngsters for the stunts as part of their campaign against one-wheeling.

However, things took a turn for the worse when on June 15 a traffic warden was killed by a masked motorbike rider. When Warden Sohail Shahzad tried to intercept two motorbikes, which were practising one-wheeling under the Sixth Road flyover, one of the riders pulled out a gun and shot him.

Police intensified their patrolling afterwards, with the New Town police reportedly arresting a man suspected of firing on the warden. The arrested man was identified as Junaid, alias Joni, but police had not yet confirmed the arrest.

But on June 16, gangs of motorbike riders clashed with police over the arrest of some of their friends. Police also arrested a couple of the rioters and charged them.

Talking about the arrests, Shahid said that criminal cases were being registered against one-wheelers whom police apprehend and that these violators were being sent to jail afterwards.

Sharing data related to their crackdown in Ramazan, Shahid said that so far 28 FIRs had been registered at the New Town and Sadiqabad police stations. The police had also arrested 29 young men for one-wheeling.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2017.