According to details, police personnel deployed here at Nawaz Chowk, sector F-8, intercepted two suspicious vehicles in the wee hours of Tuesday. During the search, police recovered weapons from their custody. The riders of these vehicles were found, once again, to be American nationals.
To the surprise of many, the Americans were allowed to go along with their arms after an anonymous call that the officer in command at police picket received at the same time when preliminary investigation were being carried out from the foreigners.
Though it is not clear who asked the police to let the Americans go, sources revealed that US Embassy officials came into action swiftly and got their nationals freed after contacting high-ups of Pakistan’s Interior Ministry.
When contacted, Foreign Office spokesman told TheNation that there existed no law in Pakistan that might allow any foreigner or diplomat, including Americans, to move on busy roads of capital with illegal arms.
Talking to TheNation, the Spokesperson of US Embassy Richard Snelsire said he was unaware about the incident.
Following Tuesday’s incident, a wave of anger, fear and uncertainty has been felt across the federal capital. It was not the first incident of such kind in the Federal Capital wherein foreigners were nabbed by police for keeping illegal arms. It has been observed that in a number of incidents police intercepted foreigners including American diplomats cruising busy roads of Islamabad carrying sophisticated arms and let them free after interception of ‘hidden hands’.
Some days ago, police officials deployed at a picket intercepted two Dutch diplomats and recovered sophisticated weapons including hand grenades from their possession. The police lodged a formal complaint, however, no such action was initiated in repeated cases of US diplomats and nationals who were allowed to go.
Following the incident, Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik also stated that no foreigner would be allowed to carry illegal arms with him/her. “The violators would be dealt with an iron hand,” he added.
However, Americans were found violating the law of the land and to the surprise of the Minister himself, violators were given a safe passage every time.
