Youth’s death: FO lodges protest with US envoy

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office (FO) on Sunday summoned US Ambassador to Pakistan, Richard Hale, where Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ms Tehmina Janjua lodged a protest according to the diplomatic procedure over the killing of 19-year-old Muhammad Attique Baig and injuring 21-year-old Raheel Ahmed in a road accident by a vehicle being driven by US Defence Attaché (Air Force) Col Joseph Emanuel

Attique Baig was killed on the spot and Raheel Ahmed was seriously injured and admitted to a local hospital when, apparently, Col Joseph Emanuel jumped the traffic at the Daman-e-Koh traffic signal on Khayaban-e-Iqbal at around midday on Saturday.

The CCTV footage of the incident indicates that the white Land Cruiser jumped the red light and hit the motorbike being driven by Muhammad Attique while Raheel Ahmed was on the back seat. The accident resulted in Muhammad Attique’s death on the spot while Raheel Ahmed sustained serious injuries.

The US Embassy issued an official statement regarding the incident which says: “The US Embassy expresses its deep sympathy to the family of the deceased and those injured in a tragic traffic accident involving a US Embassy vehicle on April 7. Embassy officials are cooperating with local authorities who are investigating the accident.”

Meanwhile, the Foreign Office spokesman, in a statement, said: “The Foreign Ministry is closely following investigation into the road accident involving a US diplomat which led to the tragic death of a Pakistani citizen in Islamabad.”

Earlier, in his meeting with Foreign Secretary Ms Janjua, the US ambassador expressed sympathies with the bereaved family over the tragic loss and extended assurance of full cooperation in the investigations of the accident.

Meanwhile, there was a lot of criticism aimed at the Station House Officer (SHO) of the Kohsar Police Station, for letting the US Defence Attaché (Air Force), Col Joseph Emanuel, leave the police station after registering the First Information Report (FIR) in the case without completing the formalities, including the medical test of the driver (Col Joseph Emanuel).

However, legal experts are of the view that the SHO Kohsar Police Station or any other official could not have kept the US national, who has the status of a diplomat based in the US Embassy in Islamabad because of the privileges and immunity he enjoys himself under the Geneva and Vienna conventions covering the diplomats working in foreign countries.

Secondly, the legal experts said that the driver stopped at the spot after the accident and didn’t try to run away, offering himself to be taken into custody and be part of the investigations in the road accident.

“It was beyond the powers of the SHO to keep the US diplomat, enjoying privileges and immunities as a certified diplomat,” the legal experts said. Col Joseph Emanuel was taken to the Kohsar Police Station after the accident at around 3:30pm in his vehicle but he refused to step out of the Land Cruiser.

He remained confined in the Land Cruiser bearing the US Embassy diplomatic number till the time the officials from the Foreign Office turned up with the documents which certified his status as a ‘certified diplomat’. Only after the intervention from the Foreign Office, the SHO let Col Joseph Emanuel go but impounded the vehicle involved in the accident.

Col Joseph Emanuel left the premises of Kohsar Police Station after over three hours in a vehicle sent by the US Embassy to take him away.