SAHIWAL: Rang Shah police on Sunday took a youth into “protective custody” who was attempting to operate, what he called, a flying device he had created.

Police caught Fayaz, a matriculation student, who was about to ‘fly’ his device in the fields of village 50/EB, Muhammad Nagar of Arifwala. Fayaz claimed to have sold his four-kanal piece of land he had inherited and invested the money into developing a flying machine.

On Sunday, hundreds of villagers gathered as he was about to test the machine. However, someone informed Rang Shah police who cordoned off the fields and stopped Fayaz.

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Witnesses said police carried the machine in a tractor trolley and took it to the police station along with Fayaz. No first information report was registered against him and the youth was in custody till the filing of this report.

Rang Shah Station House Officer Nisar Bhatti told Dawn that Fayaz had only been taken into protective custody and the unreliable machine impounded to ensure it did not cause any harm to villagers who had gathered to witness the experiment.

He said they had called in experts to check what the device was and how it would function.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2019