Cops booked as motorcyclist dies at checkpoint in Islamabad

Police claim the rider tried to speed away when motioned to stop; relatives protest outside police station

ISLAMABAD: Police have booked two of their own after a motorbike rider was killed at a police checkpoint in the upscale Blue Area late on Sunday.

Reports suggested that a 19-year-old man, identified as sanitary worker Clinton, was driving his motorbike on the Fazle Haq Road near Fresco Sweets when a policeman tried to stop him allegedly by grabbing the handle of his two-wheeler.

This apparently caused Clinton to lose his balance and he was thrown from his bike. As he fell, he hit his head on the road median at an odd angle causing him to die on the spot.

Police explained that two officials, identified as Jahan Afsar and Noor Rehman, were manning the check post at the time. They had motioned Clinton and two others who were riding pillion with him, to stop.



Instead of braking, officials claimed, Clinton instead tried to speed away from the officers.

“They lost control of the bike [due to the speed] and hit the median, which resulted in one death,” an official police statement read.

However, locals and relatives of the deceased claimed that one of the policemen had allegedly grabbed the driver’s arm which caused him to fall and die.

They further said that the policemen were standing at such a spot that they were not easily visible while no signs or other identifying elements had been put up around the post such as traffic cones, which would prompt any motorist to slow down or even stop.

A police officer, while speaking to The Express Tribune on Monday, maintained that the officers had signalled the bikers to stop but they did not, after which one of the officers tried to grab the moving bike which resulted in the accident.

Clinton, who hails from a Christian family of Sialkot, used to work at a car showroom in the Blue Area.

At the time of the accident, he was accompanied by two boys, 17-year-old Suneel Michael and 15-year-old Raza Masih, who were riding pillion with Clinton.

As the rider lost his balance, they too were thrown off the motorbike and sustained injuries.

While Clinton lived at the showroom he worked in, the other two were residents of a slum in Sector G-7/2.

“They did not signal us to stop. We want that the officials who are responsible for to be punished,” said Suneel’s father Michael while talking to The Express Tribune.

 After the incident, relatives of the victims staged a protest at the site of the incident before shifting their protest to the Kohar police station on Monday morning.

The protest was called off after police officers held talks with the protesters and assured them of fair investigations into the case.

Police have also registered an ‘unintentional murder’ (manslaughter) case against the two officials on Suneel’s complaint and have arrested them.

The protesters, however, said they were not satisfied with these measures since they did not know what the police had written in the first information report of the incident. 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 6^th, 2018.