Hit-and-run incident: Pakistan returns two Indian officials

LAHORE: Authorities on Monday sent back two Indian High Commission officials who were involved in a hit-and-run incident in Islamabad.

As per details, The two Indian officials, Dwimu Brahma and Paul Selvadhas, were sent back to India via the Wagah border crossing.

Earlier, Islamabad police had arrested the two Indian officials on June 15 however, they were freed after the FO intervened in the matter.

Indian High Commission spokesperson Akhilesh Singh in a statement said,  “The two Indian officials have returned to India today morning through Wagah-Attari.”

On 18 June, the Foreign Office (FO) had rejected the Indian Ministry of External Affairs’ “irresponsible” statement regarding the detention of the two officials, calling it a “reprehensible attempt to distort facts and deny culpability”.

The statement had come in response to the Indian foreign ministry’s reported claim that the two staff members had been “subjected to interrogation, torture and physical assault, resulting in grievous injuries”.

While rejecting the claim, the FO spokesperson had said that a pedestrian was “seriously injured” after being hit by Brahma and Paul’s vehicle and was taken to hospital.

“The officials attempted to flee from the scene, however, some passersby who witnessed the incident stopped them from fleeing and informed the police,” the spokesperson had said in a statement.

“During the course of the investigation, the fake currency was also recovered from the aforementioned officials. After it was confirmed that the said officials were from the Indian High Commission, they were released and handed over to a senior diplomat from the [commission].

According to the first information report (FIR) registered with the Secretariat Police Station, the two officials, who were driving to the high commission in a dark-colored car early in the morning, had hit a pedestrian attempting to cross the road.

The pedestrian, who was not identified in the report, was seriously injured and shifted to the Poly Clinic hospital by passersby, police said.

The two persons in the car, according to police, tried to flee after the accident on Khayaban-i-Suhrawardy but were stopped by people who had gathered at the scene. 

They were handed over to the police and were later shifted to the police station for interrogation. According to the FIR, fake currency notes worth Rs10,000 were also seized from them.

Both were booked by police for reckless driving, causing injury due to negligent driving, and possessing fake currency. The FIR was sealed due to the diplomatic immunity possessed by the officials, according to diplomatic sources.