Police in Alipur have arrested a rickshaw driver after a video circulating on social media showed 28 schoolchildren packed into a single motorised rickshaw, some of them sitting on its roof.
The video, which spread widely online on Friday, showed boys and girls in school uniform crammed into and on top of the three-wheeler as it travelled on a road in Alipur, a tehsil of Muzaffargarh district in south Punjab. Some of the children could be seen perched on the roof of the vehicle, with others squeezed onto its sides and rear.
The footage was brought to the notice of the District Police Officer, Muzaffargarh, who ordered immediate action. In a post on social media, the district police said the action had been taken in line with the Punjab chief minister’s vision for the protection of schoolchildren, and that the children had been taken off the overloaded vehicle safely.
Officers from City Police Station, Alipur, stopped the rickshaw and helped all 28 children out. Police said the children were safe and were sent on to school in other rickshaws.
The driver was arrested for dangerously overloading the vehicle, and a case has been registered against him at City Police Station, Alipur. Police said legal proceedings against the driver would follow under the law.
The arrest was reported by several Pakistani news outlets on Friday evening. Daily Pakistan reported that the driver was taken into custody after the video went viral, and that police had arranged for the children to be taken onward in other rickshaws. Minute Mirror also reported the arrest on Friday, saying police had acted after the video showed the children being transported in dangerous conditions. Geo News carried the story as well.
Residents said the incident had raised serious concern about the safety of children who travel to school every day in rickshaws and other small vehicles, and about the need for strict action against drivers who put young lives at risk by overloading their vehicles. School pick-and-drop services in rickshaws are widely used by families across Punjab, and parents have repeatedly raised concerns about overcrowding on these routes.
Police did not release the driver’s name. No injuries were reported, and all 28 children were said to be safe after being taken off the vehicle.
