Sleeping Dolphins let dacoits rule the roost

Islamabad:Three females travelling in a car, heading for home after a tiring day’s work and a late dinner at ‘Saver Food’ on Jinnah Avenue at around 11 pm were chased by 5 persons riding two motorbikes on Service Road-West of sector G-8/2 and tried to force them to stop on Service Road-East of Sector G-9/4 as they slowed down to take the left turn on traffic signal towards Peshawar Mor.

One biker tried to stop them as they exited the 9th Avenue on to the Service Road-West of Sector G-8/1 by getting too close to the vehicle as if about to hit the car but the lady driver didn’t paid attention. However, when they saw another bike taking U-turn on the road with the headlight switched off, they got alarmed.

As they crossed the bridge on 9th Avenue to take left turn on towards Peshawar Mor on Service Road-East of G-9/4 and had to slow down one biker over-took them and stopped the bike in front of the car forcing them to stop while the other biker, with three men riding, stopped on the side.

They started violently gesticulating, threatening and thumping on the windows and car bonnet, asking them to open the doors and step out. The lady in the driving seat sensing the danger started screaming and honked incessantly to catch attention of people around.

However, as the traffic was thin and few passerby’s were around, nobody paid much attention as to what was happening. The lady driving the car kept her senses and noticing that nobody was in the back of the car, put the vehicle in reverse gear and pressed hard on the gas paddle.

The men standing on the sides of the vehicle, trying to force open the doors ran along but the lady took a reckless turn with tires screeching and sped down the double road heading towards G-9 Markaz.

The men, who had their faces covered with handkerchiefs, ran along the moving car a few paces and then pelted stones at the car with one stone hitting the fuel-tank lid. But the lady, keeping her cool, managed to speed away and merged between two cars and some other bikes, also heading towards G-9 Karachi Company.

The lady sitting in the back seat kept watch from rear window to see if they were still being followed. Once satisfied that they men on bikes had abandoned the chase, they took an alternate route to reach their destination. They called the Emergency Police Help ‘15’, and informed them about the incident. Surprisingly the response from the Police Help Line was indifferent and the responding officer tried to make the ladies believe that it could be their apprehension and nothing such could have happened. But when the lady persisted and pointed out that such incidents had happened in the past on the same stretch of the road as well, the officer told them that our Dolphin squad teams are in the area and they would have spotted any such activity, still reluctant to believe what the complainant has experienced.

One would not like to cast any doubts towards the performance, capabilities and efficiency of Islamabad Police. But with the numbers of such alarming incidents increasing one can only urge the Islamabad Police bosses to put adequate monitoring measures in place. Only setting up security check-points and Police Pickets on the main roads and highways would not be of much help to prevent such incidents. Mobile patrolling (if there is enough money in the kitty to purchase petrol/diesel) of such isolated roads, especially in late evening could be a better solution to overcome this menace which is on the rise lately.