ISLAMABAD: Three persons, who were injured in a firing incident in the capital the other day, have been identified as residents of Swat. They were targeted by a group of gunmen.

A sub-inspector of the Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) sustained injuries while thwarting the attack and later died.

Talking to Dawn, senior police officers said initially the police thought that the three injured were passersby but a preliminary investigation showed they were travelling in a car when some people riding another vehicle intercepted and attacked them.

The injured were residents of Swat and were visiting the capital city, they said, adding that the investigators tried to approach them in the hospital but due to their serious condition the doctors refused to give the police access to them. The doctors told the police that the injured were not in a position to record their statements.

The three persons were travelling on Faqeer Aipee Road in an Alto when some people in a Honda car intercepted them near the H-11 Kashmir Highway signal, and hit their car.

Three armed men disembarked from the Honda car and opened fire on those in the Alto, said the officers, adding that an ITP official deployed there fired a couple of shots to thwart the incident but he was also shot by the gunmen.

As a result, the ITP official suffered bullet injuries and fell on the road while the attackers escaped. They also took away the Alto car and drove toward the motorway via Kashmir Highway. Later, the car was found abandoned at Chungi No. 26.

The injured were shifted to hospital where the sub-inspector was pronounced dead. So far, the motive behind the incident is not known.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (operations) Waqaruddin Syed told Dawn that two separate teams had been constituted under his supervision to investigate the incident.

According to the police officers, one of the teams led bySP Investigation Dr Mustafa Tanveer was probing the case technically, including geo-fencing, while the one headed by SP Zubair Ahmed Shaikh was collecting evidence.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2020