The Islamabad police said on Friday it thwarted an attack on a convoy of three prison vans near Sangjiani Toll Plaza outside Islamabad.
In a statement, the Islamabad Police spokesperson said 82 prisoners were being transferred to Attock Jail after an appearance before the district magistrate earlier today.
The prisoners included two PTI lawmakers and four party workers arrested in the D-Chowk protest case.
“About 20 suspects riding in four vehicles attacked the prisoner vans near Sangjani Toll Plaza,” the statement read, adding that the suspected assailants were armed with weapons, sticks and stones.
“Four police officers were injured in the attack, while four attackers were arrested,” the statement added. “Two vehicles and weapons belonging to the suspects were seized.”
Teams were formed to arrest the suspects and police also started search operations in different areas, while all escaped prisoners were recaptured by police, according to the statement.
“The police teams handled the whole situation very bravely,” it added.
PTI denies police claim
On the other hand, PTI has rejected the development as a “brazen plan” to implicate the party leaders in yet another “fake case.”
In a video message, Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Gandapur urged the federal government and the Islamabad Police to stop what he called a “drama” against the political prisoners.
Gandapur claimed that SHO Tarnol himself broke the windscreens of the prison vans and called it an “attack on the convoy”.
“I have video proof that all this drama was pre-planned to halt the release of political prisoners, who had been granted bail,” he said.
Court appearance
Earlier, District Magistrate Muhammad Azhar Nadeem presided over a hearing for the identification parade of the 82 suspects, dismissing the case as prisoners were already presented in courts and, therefore, their identity was known to the police and the complainant.
During the hearing, the counsel for the accused said that 34 of them were police personnel while 42 included Rescue 1122 personnel. PTI MPAs Anwar Zeb and Malik Liaquat Khan are among the six arrested PTI members.
On October 4, at least 30 protesters were arrested as police fired tear gas to disperse PTI protesters attempting to reach Islamabad’s D-Chowk for a party rally, despite a ban on public gatherings.
“[The] request to send the accused for identification parade is declined and all of them are hereby discharged from the instant case,” said the court’s order. “They [are to be] be released forthwith if not required in any other case.”
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