TAXILA: A police officer set a rare example of empathy by donating blood to a suspected drug peddler after he allegedly shot himself in the leg when police reached at his den in the Pindigheb town of Attock on Saturday.

Sources in the police said that a team of Pindigheb police raided the narcotics den of Riaz in the Dandi area of the town. Upon seeing the police, the suspect took out a pistol and shot himself in the leg to avoid being arrested.

The injured was shifted to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Pindigheb by the police. As the hospital had paucity of operation facilities, he was to be shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital Rawalpindi. However, his condition worsened due to profuse bleeding and the doctors advised transfusion of blood. The station house officer (SHO) Pindigheb Inspector Syed Imran Haider Kazmi came to the rescue of the injured and donated one pint of blood to save his life. After transfusion of the blood, the suspect was shifted to Rawalpindi in an ambulance.

Soon after the picture of the SHO’s donating blood to the injured suspect was posted on social media, it went viral on various platforms winning applause from the citizens.

Social media users described the gesture of the police officer as an example of the new and delighted face of the Punjab police.

“As soon as police raided the den of the drug seller, he took out his pistol and shot himself in the leg in a bid to avert his arrest,” said a police official.

Talking to newsmen, SHO Kazmi said he donated blood to the alleged narcotics seller according to the famous slogan of the police that “Hatred is crime, not the human being”.

Impostor arrested

A man posing himself a police officer and allegedly defrauding citizens was apprehended in Hazro town of Attock on Saturday.

A police spokesman said Yasir Mehmood, a former police Razakar, allegedly blackmailed people to collect money from them while pretending to be a police officer.

The police apprehend him red-handed in Hameed village in the limits of Hazro police when he was extorting money from people of the area.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2024