LAHORE: Passengers of two US consulate cars refused to let security agencies inspect their vehicles when they were stopped at Sherpao Bridge on Tuesday, and the ensuing, three-hour argument led to a major traffic jam on Jail Road.
The vehicles were later allowed to go when it was verified that the passengers were holders of blue visas. Sources said military personnel had stopped the vehicles – which had tinted windows – for routine checking at a Sherpao Bridge picket, but the drivers locked the cars from the inside.
However, the sources said the security personnel surrounded the cars – with the drivers trying to drive on – and insisted on checking them. The vehicles were kept from leaving the picket for at least three hours.
Intelligence officials – who had arrived at the picket – also tried to persuade the passengers to let their vehicles be checked, but those in the car argued that since they were from the US consulate, they did not fall under the purview of routine checking.
But the military personnel refused to let them go until the arrival of their seniors and provincial government officials, said the sources.
Cantt SP Capt (r) Ghulam Azfar told Daily Times police were not involved in the incident, as the vehicles were stopped at an army picket. However, he confirmed that the vehicles were from the USconsulate. He said the passengers argued that since they were holders of blue visas, they were exempt from such checking.
He said the passengers’ identity was verified through the consulate and the Home Department, and “they were, therefore, allowed to go”. He said the cars could not be checked after it had been proven thatthe passengers were from the US consulate, as “blue visas cover them from such routine checking”. A military personnel told Daily Times that senior army officials took the vehicles to an unidentified location for interrogation, but allowed them to leave later.
