LAHORE: As New Year aerial firings continue to claim innocent lives unabated every year, a teenage girl who was hit by a stray bullet in Missri Shah lost her batter for life at Mayo Hospital on Saturday.
The victim has been identified as Eman, a resident of the low-lying area of Railway quarters new Copper Store bridge. Her demise in such a tragic and at such a tender age left her family in trauma. A minor protest was also staged by her relatives and neighbours against the wanton act of revelry.
The protesters slammed recurrent incidents of aerial firing in the locality and demanded stern action against the perpetrators.
She is among five of the victims who met with the same fate on New Year's Eve. Other four cases had been reported in Nawan Kot, Naulakha, Township and Gulshan-e-Ravi.
Speaking on the issue, Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Lahore Zulfiqar Hameed said as compared to past Lahore police took solid steps to prevent areal firing incidents on New Year's Eve.
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He said an analysis of data of the whole province revealed that against actions such acts by Lahore Police were more than half of the rest of the province.
He also cited social tendencies permeating society as factors behind the phenomenon. He said the contribution of overall social behaviour cannot be ruled out despite efforts.
Aerial firing has been identified as a consistent trend as incidents and data revealed.
Last year on New Year's Eve, at least 34 people, including a woman and a child, were injured in incidents of aerial firing.
At least 11 victims of aerial firing were treated at Mayo Hospital, eight in Lahore General Hospital, seven in Jinnah Hospital, four in Services Hospital and two in Ganga Ram Hospital.
Besides New Year's Eve, aerial firing is also reported during common days causing causalities and injuries.
In September 2018, a 22-year-old woman Maria was hit by a stray bullet during a marriage ceremony Shadabagh. She was standing on the roof of her house when the incident occurred. The participants resorted to aerial firing. Resultantly, a bullet hit the victim that proved so fatal to claim her life.
An elderly woman had also died after being hit by a stray bullet in Shalimar two days back. The victim was passing through a market when received a bullet injury and later died due to it.
Policemen and political influential have also been spotted for being involved in the offence. Three years back, two officials of anti-organized crime cell popularly known as CIA were spotted resorting to aerial firing in a video near CIA Kotwali headquarters in a marriage ceremony.
In 2017, a complaint was lodged against the workers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf especially Mian Khalid. The residents of the area had also alleged of police being reluctant to take action against them.
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A trend of uploading videos of aerial firing on social media apps has also been observed as there have been cases reported consistently. A few days back, Lahore Police had arrested two suspects for uploading a video of aerial firing on a social media app TikTok.
Official data of Lahore Police also substantiated the version as they registered at least 469 cases under Aerial Firing Act only in 2019.
Deputy Inspector General of Police Rai Babar Saeed said Lahore Police took severe action against aerial firing and illegal arms.
They took arrested 5,285 criminals and 5,270 cases against illegal arms in different Police Stations of the city in 2019. Police also recovered 65 Kalashnikovs, 260 rifles, 203 guns, 4108 pistols, 05 carbines, 85 daggers and thousands of bullets from these criminals during the year.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 5th, 2020.
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