Officers responsible for jeeps’ burning to be revealed Saturday

Colleagues say SP failed to assess the gravity of the sitaution.

LAHORE:

The inquiry report on the burning of two police jeeps is scheduled to be submitted before the City Capital Police Officer (CCPO) by Saturday, The Express Tribune has learnt. Cantonment SP Hashmat Kamal and DSP Asim Ifitkhar’s jeeps were burnt during a protest on October 2.

The inquiry is being conducted by the Disciple and Inspection SSP Shariq Kamal. The inquiry seeks to fix the responsibility for leaving the jeeps, worth Rs4 million, to the ire of the protestors.

On October 2, a protest against power outages at Mehmood Booti turned violent as demonstrators charged on police personnel. The protestors turned over the jeeps and set them on fire.

Some police officers have said that it was negligence on the part of the SP who failed to assess the gravity of the situation. They have alleged that neither the DSP nor the SP wore anti-riot gear and that the jeeps did not have grills placed on the windows and windscreen to protect passengers. Further, the jeeps were not parked at a safe distance. Standard operating procedures require the officers to walk to the protest, but in this case the officers approached the protesters in their jeeps. They later drove away and parked their jeeps at some distance, a witness said.

Another police officer told The Express Tribune that if according to their claims they were far away from the riots but their cars got stuck in traffic then why did the police station vehicles not get burnt? He said the incident showed the police officers inability to deal with such situations.

Baghbanpura SHO Inspector Shakeel Ahmad has stated that the jeeps were parked five hundred yards from the protest. However, he said when the protestors got violent the police had to retreat and the vehicles got destroyed.

However, one of the drivers, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Tribune that the police did not make a retreat rather they were attacked by another group that emerged from a street. He said the police tried to save the jeeps but failed as they were caught between the protestors and traffic.

SSP Kamal said the standard operating procedures must be followed in every situation. He declined comment on this case as he said being an inquiry officer he was not authorised to do so. He said the inquiry was being conducted on merit.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 21^st, 2011.