GPO Square lies in the heart of the city, a few yards away from Quetta’s red zone on Zarghoon Road which houses the official residences of the governor, chief minister, chief secretary, police inspector general and other ministers. Unlike other main traffic junctions in the city, GPO Square is open and unrestrictive — it also does not have traffic signals. This is why traffic police sergeant Haji Ataullah found himself on duty in the middle of GPO Square signalling vehicles to prevent a rush-hour traffic choke on June 20. He was run over by an SUV in the evening, shortly before iftar.

His colleague, Constable Asim Ali, was on duty with him that fateful day. Standing under a scorching sun on Sunday, he recalls: “We would stand here every day and later would have iftari together.” Ataullah would arrive on duty here early in the morning and head back home after offering Maghrib prayers at a nearby Jamia Masjid in TNT Colony.

“Whatever happened that evening is clearly visible in the footage captured by closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras,” says Ali says. After MPA Abdul Majeed Achakzai’s vehicle ran over Ataullah, Ali says he picked up the injured sergeant and took him to the Sandeman Provincial Hospital in a private car.

Traffic police officers recall Ataullah was a nice, well-behaved, and dutiful officer. “I do not remember a day he was absent from duty,” says Ali. “During the last five days, several commuters have been stopping their vehicles and motorcycles to offer consolation. Ataullah had been performing his duties for more than two decades in Quetta. Many people knew him.”

The ill-fated traffic sergeant hailed from Babu Khel village in the Khosa tehsil of Dera Ghazi Khan — an old Baloch-dominated district in Punjab. The majority of people in Dera Ghazi Khan are poor, and they remain under the rule of powerful Baloch landlords and sardars. Many of the people here end up moving to large cities, including Quetta, in order to earn a livelihood.

Ataullah had moved to Quetta with his family a while back. His brother, Mohammad Inayatullah, a sub-inspector in the traffic police, had moved with him too. “My brother and I lived together in Quetta with our families, as we both work in the traffic police here,” says Inayatullah. Their father had arrived in Quetta a short while before Ramazan to escape the harsh weather in south Punjab.

Their mother, Jeevan Bibi, has been inconsolable since that terrible day. She keeps crying saying “I want my son back”, according to Inayatullah. Haji Ataullah left three sons and two daughters. His wife has barely eaten since the day he died.

When his injured brother was brought to hospital, Inayatullah says there wasn’t a single doctor present on duty after iftari. The lone nurse present there kept injecting him with painkillers and after two hours, during which he received no treatment, Ataullah succumbed to his injuries.

Despite CCTV footage and eyewitness accounts that MPA Majeed Khan Achakzai, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of the Balochistan Assembly, was present in the vehicle, the Civil Lines police decided to register an FIR against unidentified suspects. “As soon as I got wind of that, I called up my seniors at the traffic police office in Quetta. They said they had no knowledge of it and would look into it. Thanks to the media, the MPA has finally been arrested and remanded.”

Sources in the Balochistan police told Dawn that they were under constant pressure from the governor, the chief minister, and senior ministers and leaders of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP). This is why they had to register the FIR against unidentified people.

City traffic police SP Mohammad Javed Malik is satisfied with how the case was eventually dealt with. “It is good to know he [the MPA] has been arrested under the law,” he says. “Our department lost one of its best officers that day.”

He says there have been similar incidents in the past. “Last year, a truck driver trying to avoid a fine ran over traffic policeman Manzoor Hussain on Baleli Road, situated on the northern side of Quetta.”

A few months back, another member of the PkMAP ran his jeep over a group of protesters near the Governor House. Thankfully, there were no casualties and the case is under way at a sessions court in Quetta.

It is said that MPA Achakzai’s family and his political party are trying hard to settle the issue by paying compensation to the family of the deceased traffic police officer. Inayatullah says: “Yes, the district commissioner of Ziarat visited our home in Dera Ghazi Khan on behalf of Achakzai. He gave Rs200,000 to Haji Ataullah’s son as per the Baloch-Pashtun culture. However, I say time and again, we are currently not in the position to say anything about accepting compensation or not, as we are in mourning.”

Quetta’s traffic policemen continue to perform their duties in the face of multiple challenges and the apathy they face. “The VIPs of Quetta think they should not be held to the same standards of law as everyone else. They should understand, as per the law, traffic rules apply to everyone equally — the children, the rich, the elderly and the poor. No one has a right to break the law.”

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2017