RAWALPINDI: Police have registered a case against a villager who called emergency services Rescue 1122 about a plane crash near Kallar Syedan on Wednesday night, which led to a hectic search for the plane’s debris and caused losses to the rescue service’s resources and vehicles.

The call, made by an individual at 7:54pm on Wednesday was revealed to be a hoax after a team of police personnel led by Kallar Syedan Station House Officer Inspector Khyzir Hayat reached the Guff village and did not find any debris from a plane crash.

Aviation authorities also denied reports of a plane crash and said no such incident had occurred.

On Wednesday evening, Rescue 1122 released an initial report based on the caller’s claim that a plane had crashed in the area, but at 10:14pm emergency services confirmed that Rescue 1122 did not find any part of a plane.

Instead, Rescue 1122 said District Emergency Officer Dr Abdul Rahman confirmed that Rescue 1122 staff were extinguishing a bushfire with heavy equipment.

Later, Rescue 1122 station coordinator Haris Farooq lodged a complaint with the police stating that a call on March 22 at 7:54pm informed emergency services that a plane had crashed in the Mara Singal Guff village.

Mr Farooq said fire-fighting vehicles, ambulances and rescue officials were sent to the village in light of this information, where they discovered that there was no plane crash but bushfire had broken out.

He said the alleged hoax caused losses to the rescue service’s resources and damaged its vehicles. The suspect identified in the FIR has not yet been arrested.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2017