ISLAMABAD, May 21: A frustrated young man’s invitation to journalists to witness his “flaming protest against injustice” at Aabpara on Wednesday saved his life but put him behind the bars.

Alerted by the journalists, a police party, with a magistrate, reached the scene just when Rashid Naqvi, 26, of district Kotli of Azad Kashmir, was about to put a match to his petrol-soaked clothes to protest the acquittal of men accused of murdering his brother.

Photographers captured every action as policemen tore away his robe, emblazoned with the words in Urdu “Husool-e-Insaf Kay Leay Khud Sozi” (self-immolation to get justice), and bundled him off in an ambulance to a nearby hospital.

Once his body was cleaned of traces of petrol — to prevent him from making another attempt at self-immolation — police took him to Aabpara Police Station and put him in a cell.

A case of attempted suicide was registered against Rashid under PPC 325 but the accused was not interrogated immediately. Dawn was told the area police were busy with Barri Imam Urs.

Rashid had visited the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Press Club Camp office in the afternoon and handed out invitations to journalists sitting there to his self-immolation.

His invitation alleged that “the acquittal of the killers of my brother Asif Naqvi was nothing but travesty of justice”.

“I’m not getting justice. I’ve decided that a society bereft of justice is not livable. So in protest I will immolate myself at 3:30pm today at Aabpara Chowk. I will be obliged for coverage of the event.”

Last month, a young ice-cream vendor had blown shot himself at the same place. Umar Deen left behind a suicide note saying he was heavily in debt and unable to pay it back because the power cuts had ruined his business.