RAWALPINDI, July 21: A young man’s anger at finding his girlfriend’s photo on the Facebook broke up a triangle of schooldays friends with a shooting that sent one to hospital, another on a flight and the third to jail, police said.

Syed Imran Ali Naqvi, 20, is the one who is lying paralysed down the waist in the District Headquarters Hospital since June 25.

He alleges that his friend Ahmed Paracha shot at him as the third friend Taha held him.

Waris Khan police say Taha is in their custody since his plea for bail-before-arrest was rejected by a court. However, it is still unclear who uploaded the offensive photo on the Facebook. The alleged shooting reportedly took place late night on June 25.

Paracha who fled is still at large.

“Police have been trying to arrest the main accused as he had fired gunshots but found him missing from his home,” Sub-Inspector Khaleeque Satti, investigating the incident, said, adding that police could not detain his mother and sister as no male member was available at his home.

“My brother was shot and injured by his best friends. For 22 days he has been struggling for life in the neurosurgical ward of the DHQ hospital. Doctors rate his chances as slim,” Imran’s elder sister told Dawn, withholding her name and accusing the police of “sluggishness”.

She said the bullets fired at her brother injured his spinal cord and he was also having difficulty in breathing.

“Doctors describe his condition as very critical. They think for three months nothing can be said about his survival and asked us to pray for him,” she added.

She recalled that the three schooldays friends brawled over the uploading of the photograph of a girl with some remarks.

“It was a girl who provoked the boy (the accused) to break up his friendship with Imran. And two days later, he called him for a patch up and then shot him,” she said.

Imran himself could not be approached because doctors say too much talking would be harmful to his recovery.