LAHORE: Misri Shah police have arrested nine young men in an action against dangerous one-wheeling and the performance of stunts on motorcycles.
According to police, the arrested suspects were present on the roads in groups and were performing dangerous stunts and one-wheeling while taking advantage of reduced traffic.
Police arrested the suspects on the spot and also took the motorcycles they were using into custody.
Police said cases have been registered against the arrested suspects and further legal proceedings have been initiated.
Police officials said dangerous one-wheeling and stunt riding on roads will not be permitted under any circumstances, and that action against law-breaking elements will continue in order to protect the lives and property of citizens.
One-wheeling occupies a distinct legal category in Punjab. Rather than being handled solely as a traffic infringement attracting a challan, it is treated as a criminal offence in its own right — reflecting the assessment that a rider performing stunts on a public carriageway endangers not only himself but every other road user around him.
Punjab enacted dedicated legislation on the subject, and the framework provides for imprisonment, fines and confiscation of the motorcycle used in the offence. The seizure of vehicles reported in this case is therefore not an incidental step; it is a deliberate feature of the enforcement model, on the reasoning that removing the machine imposes a cost that a fine alone does not.
Motorcycles account for the overwhelming majority of registered vehicles in Punjab and a correspondingly disproportionate share of road traffic fatalities and serious injuries. Emergency services in Lahore consistently report motorcycle collisions as the single largest category of road-accident calls.
Riders performing stunts are, by definition, operating without the control margins that ordinary riding retains: a lifted front wheel eliminates front braking and steering authority. Group riding compounds the risk, because a single loss of control propagates through a formation.
Trauma physicians additionally note that stunt riders frequently ride without helmets — helmet use being a statutory requirement in Punjab — which converts survivable collisions into fatal head injuries.
The detail that the group was operating when traffic had thinned is characteristic of the offence. Stunt riding in Lahore has historically clustered on wide arterial roads during late-night hours and on public holidays, when carriageways are clear. Police enforcement has adapted accordingly, with patrolling concentrated in those windows and at known gathering points.
The persistent difficulty is deterrence. Where riders are young and the motorcycle is family-owned, the consequences of confiscation can fall on parents rather than the rider, and cases are frequently compounded or settled. Road safety practitioners have argued for pairing enforcement with structured alternatives — supervised venues for motorsport, and school-level road safety education — rather than relying on periodic crackdowns alone.
Investigation in the present case continues.
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