Four dead, two injured in car accident: FIR against Kashmala Tariq’s son lodged

ISLAMABAD: Four people were crushed to death and two others were injured after a speeding four-wheeler allegedly driven by Federal Ombudsperson Kashmala Tariq’s son hit another vehicle on Srinagar Highway on Monday night.

According to police sources and video footage circulated on social media, Kashmala Tariq’s husband, Waqas Khan along with her son, Azlan, were also present in the Lexus Jeep bearing registration number WX-077, which crashed into a Mehran car, carrying the persons who died. Police have nominated Tariq’s son Azlan in the first information report (FIR), they said.

As per the FIR registered by Ramna police station five men, including Anus Shakeel, Farooq Ahmed, Haider Ali, Malik Adil, and Mujeebur Rehman who came from Mansehra to Islamabad for written test and interview for Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) jobs, were traveling in a Mehran car bearing registration number APU-637 which was hit by a Lexus.

The FIR which was registered on the complaint of an injured person namely, Mujeebur Rehman, who present at the front seat of the Mehran car, said that a person namely, Faisal Khan, riding a bike bearing registration number RIL-8970 was also hit by the speeding Jeep, and he was also injured. He further said that when he was rescued by the people present at the scene, they told him that a person namely, Azlan was driving the Lexus that hit them at Sector G-11 traffic signal. He further told the police that the people present at the scene shifted them to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) for treatment where Anus Shakeel, Frooq Ahmed, Haider Ali, and Malik Adil succumbed to their injuries, while his treatment was continued at PIMS.

The complainant requested to register a case against the driver and for legal action against him. After the incident, the Islamabad police confirmed the accident but did not name the suspect. In a tweet, the capital police said a “tragic accident” took place at a signal in G-11 which resulted in the death of four people. The tweet added that the police have taken the vehicle into their custody. The police are also trying to contact the families of the victims, it added.

Sources said that the speeding vehicle was part of Kashmala Tariq’s protocol vehicles. Tariq’s husband Waqas Khan and son were also sitting in one of the vehicles. Tariq’s protocol vehicles broke a signal in sector G-11, and crashed into a motorcycle and a car.

Police have reportedly taken Tariq’s husband to a police station while her son and others flee the scene, they said.

The investigation officer (IO) Sub-Inspector (SI) Asif Khan, when contacted, said that the police have conducted raids at residence of the accused, Azlan, who was nominated in the FIR but so far not been arrested. Azlan, Waqas Khan and his wife Kashmala Tariq, were present in the vehicle, he said. When he was asked why the police did not arrest Waqas Khan, he replied that the complainant did not nominate him in the FIR, and he is also injured and currently admitted in a private hospital. He said that the police have taken into custody Waqas Khan’s driver Fiaz Din into their custody.

Meanwhile, talking to reporters at her residence, Kashmala Tariq said that it was not her son who drove the vehicle which hit Mehran car at Srinagar Highway. She termed the allegation leveled against her son and husband baseless. She said everything will be cleared once the CCTV footage of the incident has been probed. “I am saddened and equally grieving the loss of precious lives in the incident and if you look at the vehicles, you can tell how horrific the accident was”, she said. She, however, added that in the CCTV it can be seen who was actually driving our car. She said that these were not her protocol vehicles. “We were coming in two vehicles from Lahore, in one vehicle she and her husband were present and another vehicle was carrying her son and police guard”, she said.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021