The wagon that was caught in the line of fire. PHOTO: PPI
Two people were killed and eight others were injured during firing at a checkpoint jointly manned by the police and army near Gora Qabristan on University Road Thursday morning.
Cantt SP Rana Umar Farooq told The Express Tribune an attacker armed with a TT pistol fired at a sentry manning the post. “It was rush hour and the check post was crowded with lots of vehicles so a passer-by was killed along with the attacker while eight others sustained injuries.”
The SP said the identity of the deceased attacker was yet to be established as no ID card or any other document to identify him was found. “He walked to the check post and did not come in any vehicle,” Farooq informed.
There was no official statement from the ISPR regarding the incident.
The injured people, meanwhile, were rushed to Lady Reading Hospital where the hospital’s spokesperson, Jamil Shah, said they received one body and six injured people. The other injured persons were driven to Combined Military Hospital.
The other deceased is the driver of one of the wagons. He was identified as Momin.
An eyewitness contested the version of the police, painting a different picture altogether.
“I was going to my office early morning. There were long queues of vehicles at the check post and then, suddenly, army men a few metres from the post started firing from a machine gun,” he said, not wishing to be named for fear of retribution.
“They hit a passenger wagon as well as other cars. We did not see any attacker,” said the eyewitness, adding the firing stopped soon but the damage had already been done. “Later, they called the bomb disposal unit to check the vehicles in which innocent people had been shot, but nothing was found.”
Another eyewitness also differed on the version of the events. “This sudden firing resulted in a stampede of sorts as people left their vehicles and started running for dear life, but those caught inside the wagon were unable to move,” he said. According to him, two wagons and a car were caught in the line of fire and got hit.
Meanwhile, an FIR was registered against an unidentified terrorist on the complaint of Captain Asif of 27 FF regiment. The FIR has been registered under sections 324 and 353 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 13th, 2015.
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