Daring move: Cab driver escapes after killing carjacker

He ran miles through a jungle after killing one of the carjackers with his own gun.

ISLAMABAD:

A taxi driver managed to flee from his three captors on Wednesday after killing one of them.

Cab driver Wajid Ali, a resident of Kalyam Sharif, Mandra, reached Nilore Police Station after walking for three hours through thick forest and mountainous terrain. He was kept deep inside a jungle area in Chirah, the police said.

Ali told the police that two men from Rawalpindi hired him to go to Chirah village. On the way, they picked up another friend before entering the village. Upon reaching a deserted part of the road inside Chirah forest, a few kilometres short of the actual destination, they pulled out guns and pointed them at Ali before ordering him to let go of the steering wheel. As two of them took him to a forested area, the third accomplice made away with his Suzuki Mehran.

The guards shot two bullets at Ali’s feet to scare him and plainly told him they were going to kill him, the police said, quoting Ali. They held him at gunpoint for over five hours before one of them left to get food. At this point, Ali “saw an opportunity” and managed to overpower the other and pistol-whipped him to death before escaping, the police said.

Ali led police back to the area where he was kept, where they found the alleged carjacker’s body.

Police officials investigating the case said they recovered the body from the site. “The head was in bad shape,” the investigation officer said of the body.

The deceased was identified as Muhammad Waseem, who had a history of arrests for involvement in street crimes and cell phone snatching. He had also served at least one jail sentence for street crimes, said the police officer investigating the case. His body was lying in the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) morgue when this report was filed.

The police officer said that the evidence collected thus far supports Ali’s version of events.

“I was convinced they would kill me when their partner got back. The only way to save my own life was to kill the man first,” a police official quoted Ali as saying. After escaping, the cab driver reached a nearby village where people called the police.

He was allowed to go home by the police after they registered his complaint.

The police said Ali was not held because he killed the man in self-defence.

However, he was asked to stay in the city and be ready to appear before the police if required.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th, 2012.