LAHORE, Nov 8: An official of the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) escaped unhurt after three unidentified people opened fire on his car near Barkat Market in Garden Town on Saturday morning.

Later, hundreds of employees of SNGPL’s Guru Mangat Road office staged a protest against the firing incident, blocked traffic and burnt tyres.

The firing incident took place three days after targeted XEN Asif Raza went to a CNG station reportedly owned by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MNA Mian Javed Latif on Sheikhupura Road to disconnect illegal gas supply and reported gas theft worth millions of rupees.

Senior Superintendent of Police (Operations) Chaudhry Shafiq Ahmed told Dawn that Raza left his Garden Town residence in the morning for his Guru Mangat Road office.

Three unidentified men in a car chased him, opened fire on his car from behind near Barkat Market and fled. Six bullets hit the car, but Raza remained unhurt, he added.

The protesting SNGPL employees raised slogans against Latif and blamed the attack on his men. They staged a sit-in and announced that they would continue protest till the arrest of the attackers.

Senior police officials reached the protest scene and assured protesters of action against the culprits.

The protesters went inside the office and staged another protest. The MNA later visited the SNGPL office and told officials that he did not own the gas station.

A police source told Dawn that SNGPL officials first wanted to nominate Latif and his men in the FIR lodged with the Garden Town Police Station, but later they changed their mind for reasons unknown and got registered a case against unidentified people.

“We have registered a case on the complaint of Raza who says the attackers can be some of those whose gas connections were disconnected or those who were warned during a visit to Sheikhupura Road by his team a few days ago,” the SSP said.

He said Raza, who is in charge of SNGPL’s theft identification team, had told the gas station employees during the visit that their owner would be issued a Rs15 million bill against gas theft.

The SNGPL team, which was accompanied by a private television cameraman, was allegedly manhandled by MNA’s gunmen and forced to leave the place. The gunmen also deleted video of the incident from the camera.