KARACHI, Nov 14: A traffic police officer was crushed to death by an unregistered four-by-four in Defence when he chased the vehicle on a motorbike to book the driver for a traffic violation on Wednesday.

The killing of Assistant Sub-Inspector Ali Akbar Memon, who left two wives and nine children, caused the police authorities to direct traffic sergeants not to follow heavy vehicles guilty of traffic violations.

Mr Memon, who was 45, worked in the police department for over 25 years.

“The late police officer signalled the driver of a white Toyota Surf with an AFR registration number to pull over in Defence Phase II. The offending driver sought to speed away. The policeman was run over by the four-wheeler near the Defence Phase II traffic light,” said an official at the Defence police station, adding that the vehicle had been left at the crime scene by the driver. It was seized by police afterwards.

He said the body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) for autopsy from where it was taken to the late police officer’s Korangi residence. It was subsequently taken to Larkana.

Police have registered an FIR (426/07) under Section 302 (intentional murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The tragic incident set alarm bells ringing in the traffic police department whose high-ranking officials met later in the evening and issued fresh directives to officers on the ground.

“I have told all officers on the ground not to chase offending vehicles. This may turn fatal – as it did on Wednesday,” DIG Traffic Wajid Ali Khan Durrani told Dawn.

“We obviously have serious concerns about the lives and safety of our officials and the current directives are in line with those concerns.”

Mr Durrani pointed out that while the traffic police department did not have as many motorbikes as needed to control growing crime, the number of vehicles, especially heavy vehicles, had been steadily increasing.

“For the time being, I have directed my sergeants not to chase heavy vehicles whose drivers violate traffic rules. Instead, they have been told to inform the nearest traffic section so that the violator could be arrested.”

The traffic police have some 300 motorcycles to keep a check on violations of traffic rules in the city. Officials insist that the department does not have the required number of motorbikes.

“We need at least 800 bikes,” said another senior official who asked not to be named.

“While we have requested the authorities to give us more motorbikes many times, our requests have so far gone unheard,” he said.

He admitted that quite often traffic police sergeants stopped vehicles only with a view to extracting money from drivers. “This is perhaps why drivers do not stop when they are asked to pull over by traffic sergeants. But this is no excuse for killing a traffic policeman,” he said.