Bykea rider injured in Rawalpindi after Dolphin Force opened fire by mistake

RAWALPINDI: A Bykea rider was injured after Dolphin Force personnel allegedly opened fire on him by mistake shortly after he dropped off a passenger on Farooq-i-Azam Road, prompting the Rawalpindi police chief to order an inquiry and suspend four officials.

The injured rider, identified as Alayan Masih, said in a video and in a statement recorded by Sadiqabad police that he had picked up a passenger from Kuri Road and dropped him at Farooq-i-Azam Road when police suddenly arrived at the scene. His account states the passenger then opened fire at the police, with bullets striking the door of a police van.

Masih said Dolphin Force personnel then returned fire and treated him as an accomplice of the suspect. He said he suffered multiple bullet wounds to his legs and thigh during the firing. In his statement, he said he told the personnel that he had no connection with the man because he was working as a Bykea rider.

He said the personnel fired nine shots at him from a distance of around four metres. Masih further stated that the officers first shot at him and only afterwards came closer, at which point he again told them he was not with the suspect and was only a Bykea rider. Police reinforcements later reached the area and shifted him to Benazir Bhutto Hospital.

Speaking about the incident, Masih said:

"I was not carrying any weapon as I was a Bykea rider,"

After the incident surfaced, City Police Officer Rawalpindi ordered an inquiry and directed DSP City Division Azhar Hussain Shah to submit a report. The four Dolphin Force personnel allegedly involved in the firing were suspended and charged on the orders of the CPO.

The passenger who allegedly fired at the police had already been booked by Sadiqabad police in a case involving the attempted kidnapping of a girl. The case was registered against Arslan and two others on the complaint of the girl’s mother, who said he tried to abduct her daughter while they were leaving their home for their native village on chand raat.

In the first information report, the complainant said that when they raised an alarm, a police party reached the spot. She alleged that Arslan released her daughter and opened fire after seeing the police. She further stated that a man riding a motorcycle was injured in the firing. That injured man was later identified as Alayan, while Arslan and an accomplice escaped after firing shots in the air.

Police sources also said that Arslan’s brothers, accompanied by his lawyer, later went to the police station to seek registration of a first information report, but police told them that a kidnapping case had already been lodged against him.

Punjab Minister for Minorities Affairs Ramesh Singh Arora took notice of the firing incident in which Alayan Masih was injured. An assistant commissioner from Rawalpindi also visited Benazir Bhutto Hospital to ask about the rider’s condition and directed the hospital administration to provide him with all necessary medical facilities.