Who to blame for Park Enclave incident?

Islamabad: An unfortunate incident occurred in Islamabad’s most prestigious and only ‘Gated Community’ of the CDA, the famous ‘Park Enclave’ on Wednesday in which a young man was allegedly shot in the leg by a security guard on duty after a scuffle broke out between the security guard and a group of young men, who were running after a free floating kite after its string was snapped in traditional kite-flying competitions.

The gun-shot incident led to storming of a violent crowd from the adjacent village including men, women and even children who thrashed the security guard black and blue and were about to kill him had the police not arrived and rescued him and took him to the Bani Gala Police Station in a very bad physical condition.

First of all it is the Chairman of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), who for some inexplicable reasons withdrew the official security from the ‘Park Enclave’, one of the basic facilities promised to the buyers of residential plots, which were sold through ballot at the highest-ever price all over the country.

The CDA chairman’s decision to withdraw the official security from ‘Park Enclave’ left the residents with no other option but to hire a security agency on their own because this ‘Gated Community’ is surrounded by local villages from three sides and the incidents of thefts, purse/cell phone snatching increased alarmingly.

However, according to credible sources in the CDA there are a total of 781 residential plots in the ‘Park Enclave’, out of which only 70 or a little more houses have been constructed and families have shifted into their homes while another 30 or 35 are in various states of construction.

The sources in the CDA said that the decision to withdraw the official security by the Authority was taken after the number of inhabitants increased. “A representative group of ‘Park Enclave’ residents had meetings with the CDA chairman and in one of those meetings they agreed to make security arrangements on their own because all the time they were complaining about inefficiency of security provided by the CDA.

“The representatives of Park Enclave residents can always approach the chairman for resolution of their issues, including security, and this issue of providing comprehensive security to make ‘Park Enclave’ a ‘Gated Community’ in the true sense could openly be discussed to find a viable solution,” the sources in the CDA said.

Secondly, it is the ICT Administration that is to be blamed for negligence that led to this unfortunate incident on Wednesday. Everybody knows that there is a strict ban on kite flying almost all over the country and yet people are flying kites using lethal strings.

Why the deputy commissioner in the first place and the local assistant commissioner did not pay attention to this illegal and dangerous practice that is continuing without any check in the federal capital, even if it is in the rural areas. Though we can see young men flying kites in the urban sectors as well!

Thirdly, why the inspector-general of police of ICT never took notice of this illegal kite-flying in federal capital and why he did not pass on the directions to the station house officers (SHOs) of all the police stations to monitor this violation of law and prevent this activity, which once was the internationally popular spring sport festival but because of its lethal impact of throat-slitting by deadly strings was banned by the Supreme Court!

As the ‘Park Enclave’ is still a sparsely inhibited community, the families who shifted there became exposed to all kind of external threats after withdrawal of official security and became extremely vulnerable in the prevailing law and order conditions. Meanwhile, the ‘Park Enclave’ inhabitants arranged and entered into an agreement with a registered private security agency for protection and preventing intruders. Also, most of the inhabitants, have installed their own CCTV networks for monitoring the situation in their surroundings.

There are numerous video clips and dozens of pictures available with the inhabitants of ‘Park Enclave’, recorded through CCTV cameras as well as with their own mobile phones clearly showing as to how the whole situation unfolded.

The video clips and photos clearly show that a group of young men were running after a free-floating kite when they were confronted by this solitary security guard on duty quite deep inside the ‘Park Enclave’. The group of young men picked up a scuffle with the security guard and during this scuffle the security guard’s gun went off, hitting one young man in the leg.

It could be seen in the videos and photos how a violent group of people from the adjacent village stormed into the Park Enclave and started thrashing the security guard, leaving him badly injured by the time the police party arrived and brought the situation under control by taking the security guard to the police station.