MULTAN, June 19: A Motorway Police officer was beaten up on the Multan-Bahawalpur Highway, allegedly by some army officials whom he had fined for over-speeding.

The injured official, Mohammad Rafiq, has been admitted to the Nishter Hospital’s Surgical Ward No 5.

Sub-Inspector Rafiq told Dawn that he was on duty near Basti Larr when he received a message from one of his colleagues monitoring speed of the vehicles on the highway that a pick-up had crossed the permissible limit of 70km an hour and was fast approaching the point where he (Rafiq) was posted.

According to Mr Rafiq, the vehicle was being driven at 93km per hour through a populated area. He signalled the vehicle to stop and asked the driver to show his licence. While showing him the licence, driver Mohammad Jameel warned him against imposing a fine, as it was an army vehicle. However, Mr Rafiq fined him Rs200 for over-speeding.

This infuriated the three occupants of the pick-up, who exchanged hot words and misbehaved with Mr Rafiq and other officials of the Motorway Police, who, however, directed them to contact the fine-collection unit of National Highway Authority. The military officials also misbehaved with NHA officials and tore up their registers.

The Motorway Police showed them a video recording of their vehicle violating the speed limit, but the military officials were not convinced and they left the place without paying the fine.

After his four-hour patrolling duty, Mr Rafiq came to the nearby Briefing Centre of the Motorway Police, where some 15 people, including three occupants of the vehicle he had fined, beat him up. He said some of them were in uniform.

When contacted, National Highway and Pakistan Motorway Police SSP (Multan) Syed Ijaz Shah said nobody was exempted from fine on violation of traffic rules. He said his department had brought the matter to the knowledge of military authorities, and the future course of action would be determined on the basis of their response.

He said it had been learnt that the assailants belonged to the Frontier Works Organization, the construction wing of Pakistan Army, and were based at Shujabad.