ISLAMABAD: A policeman and a worker from the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) claim they were mysteriously shot in front of the main gate of the Cabinet Block building right before police began lobbing teargas shells on protesters at Constitution Avenue on Saturday night.

Both the policeman and the PAT activist are currently receiving treatment at the Polyclinic Hospital.

An official of the Special Branch, Ziaullah Bajwa received injuries consistent with 12-bore gun pellets. He told Dawn that until around 10pm, the protesters had remained peaceful.

At about 10:15pm, instead of following the route they were offered to reach the Prime Minister’s House for a sit-in, marchers tried to enter the Cabinet Block through a gate that also affords access to the Presidency, the Prime Minister’s House and Parliament, he added.

“I was monitoring the protesters who were marching towards the Secretariat. As they passed through the Cabinet Block, some of them asked the others to storm the Cabinet Block.”

He said the protesters removed a container and were trying to clear the other when he was hit by the pellets.

According to the X-ray, Mr Bajwa received six pellets of a 12-bore gun in the leg. One of the pellets grazed his skull. “I don’t know who shot me, whether it was the police, PAT, PTI or some ‘unknown’ person.”

He said that after the incident, policemen lobbed teargas shells on the protesters which turned the crowd violent and they attacked the forces with batons and stones.

PAT activist Farooq Qadri was also hit by pellets of the same 12-bore gun at the same place.

Mr Qadri, a resident of Sargodha, said he was trying to remove a container near the Cabinet Block when he was hit by the pellets fired from a 12-bore gun.

Dr Khurram Ghumman, the focal person for Polyclinic, admitted that some of the injured people had claimed to have received bullet injuries. He, however, said since doctors were currently engaged in the emergency treatment and had so far not operated upon any injured, he could not confirm what type of injuries they had received. “It is quite possible that the objects appeared in the X-ray might be nails, pieces of a stone or even parts of rubber bullets.”

Despite repeated attempts, AIG special branch Waqar Chohan and AIG operations Sultan Azam Temuri could not be contacted for comment. Mohammad Naeem, the public relations officer for the Islamabad police, said he was also injured during Saturday’s violence. “Since I am out of office, I cannot comment on the matter,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2014