LAHORE: A car being driven by a senior journalist was hit from the rear by a double-cabin police vehicle on Zahoor Elahi Road on Saturday.

The car was damaged but the journalist remained safe.

The accident occurred when the double-cabin (LED 4532) carrying armed policemen escorting a private car tried to overtake the journalist’s car that had a rickshaw on its one side and the median on the other.

The journalist brought the car closer to the median in a confusion as the policemen started shouting and intimidating him.

Suddenly, the police vehicle attempted to overtake the journalist’s car but hit it in the process. Instead of apologising for their fault, the policemen hurled a volley of abuses at the journalist.

The shocked journalist was ‘consoled’ by some passersby who advised him to go home and thank Allah for “averting the sheer bad luck” which he would have to face had the police vehicle stopped there.

The incident is perhaps not new to the city where people are routinely harassed by the armed private or police guards escorting the self-styled VVIPs.

The situation becomes more intimidating at signals where these VVIPs’ vehicles stop for a while and the guards either start hurling warnings or jump out to keep the citizens away.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2014