RAWALPINDI: One of the victims of the motorway police’s firing on a passenger bus last Tuesday, Gulfaraz Khan has had metal rods and a bone plate fitted in his leg and will not be able to work for a year.

The driver of the bus, Imtiaz Ali and conductor Abdul Rehman were also injured in the incident.

Imtiaz Ali also had to be taken to the station on Monday with a bullet wound on his foot after the Naseerabad police insisted and told the owner of the bus to bring him in order to record his statement.

“The police have been insisting that the driver and conductor be brought in to record their statements, even though they are under treatment,” the bus owner, Noorullah told Dawn.

He said doctors had to remove Abdul Rehman’s right eye and will also have to be operated on Wednesday.

He said doctors have advised he should not leave the hospital.

When he was not given attention at the District Headquarters Hospital for five days, 50-year-old Gulfaraz requested the hospital administration to discharge him so he can go to Peshawar for treatment. It was only then that his leg was operated on to fix metal rods and plates.

Doctors told him he cannot work for a year. Gulzar says he is the only breadwinner in his family and that there is no one now to provide for his wife and nine children.

He lodged an FIR with the Naseerabad police, saying that the bus had just crossed the toll plaza when two police officers started chasing it and opened gun fire on the passenger bus.

He said the front screen of the bus was broken due to the gunshots, which also injured him, the driver and the conductor. The driver stopped the bus at a distance though the passengers urged him to keep going.

As soon as the bus had stopped, he said, the passengers ran out, afraid they will be fired at again.

Gulfaraz Khan, who sustained was shot three times in the leg told Dawn that none of the police or rescue staff came to help the victims. He said he called his nephews who came from Taxila to take him to the hospital.

The Rawalpindi police took several hours to lodge an FIR against motorway police officials who claimed they were attacked by the passengers. They finally registered a criminal case for attempted murder and causing damage to private property against two officials.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Farhan Aslam told Dawn that an investigation is being conducted into the incident and that registering a second FIR from the accused party is not a possibility.

He said the arrests of the accused officials are pending as well.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2018