RAWALPINDI: The city traffic officer (CTO) on Tuesday started an inquiry into the attack on the New Town police station on Wednesday last.

The inquiry into the incident was ordered by City Police Officer (CPO) Israr Ahmed Abbasi.

The attack was carried out allegedly by activists of the PML-N youth wing, led by former party MNA Hanif Abbasi.

However, CTO Ghias Gul was not given the mandate to fix responsibility for the attack or pinpoint any of the protesters or their leader. He has only been directed to ascertain the role of the police during the incident as the PML-N leader claimed that the police station was damaged by the policemen themselves.

The CPO earlier had directed Superintendent of Police Rawal Division Malik Iqbal Khan to look into the circumstances in which the police station was stormed by an angry mob and to ascertain if the damages to the building were caused by the police officials themselves.

However, the CPO on Tuesday changed the inquiry officer and assigned the task to the newly-posted CTO, SSP Dr Ghias Gul.

The PML-N activists stormed the police station demanding the release of motorcycles belonging to three youth wing activists who were caught doing wheelies by the traffic police.

When SSP Gul was contacted, he confirmed that he had been assigned the inquiry into the incident. He said he had started gathering information from different sources.

He said he would get the CCTV footages of the incident and record the statements of the police officials who were on duty at that time.

Footages in the electronic media had repeatedly showed a group of people attacking the police station and the officials trying to control them.

But the PML-N former MNA, Hanif Abbasi, denied that the activists of his party were involved in ransacking the police station.

Soon after the incident, the CPO removed Station House Officer (SHO) Ghulam Asghar Chandio after he refused to withdraw the case against the PML-N youth wing activists and release their motorcycles.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2016