Four killed in Islamabad Srinagar Highway crash

Kashmala Tariq says her son was not driving vehicle involved in accident

ISLAMABAD:

Four people lost their lives in a road crash occurred on Srinagar Highway in Islamabad in the wee hours of Tuesday.

As per the details, a Land Cruiser coming from Lahore to Islamabad via the motorway lost its control. Crushing past a motorcycle, the speeding vehicle struck another car due to which a motorcyclist lost his life on the spot while three persons in the car sustained critical injuries and later died during treatment.

Following the incident, a first information report (FIR) was registered at the Ramna police station in which the son of Federal Ombudsperson for Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplaces Kashmala Tariq was also nominated. The case was lodged by one of the injured who survived the accident.

However, hours after the road crash, Tariq called for a fair probe into the matter, saying her son was not driving the vehicle involved in the accident.

She expressed dismay over “allegations being hurled at her family” and “a media trial launched against” them in the wake of the deadly accident.

Expressing grief over the loss of four precious lives, she said she had been devastated and traumatised due to the mishap.

She, however, demanded of the authorities to procure the closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage that would "prove that our driver was driving the vehicle involved in the accident".

“My son was in a second vehicle that was behind us," she added.

As Prime Minister Imran Khan has taken notice of the deadly accident, Kashmala said the premier should get the CCTV footage and see the reality himself.

Lamenting “the media trial against her family since after the accident made it to headlines”, she said her family too could have died in the accident. “Nobody does an accident at will”, she said remorsefully.

As per the FIR, all four deceased were Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) aspirants who had come to Islamabad from Mansehra to sit an entry test.

Sources told The Express Tribune that the jeep was owned by a local hotel owner that was being driven by his driver.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2021.