Two men accused of being human traffickers, one with an Indian passport domiciled in Poland and the other a Pakistani domiciled in Spain, refused to stop their two cars for a traffic patrol last Thursday in the town of Augustów.
Border guards chased the cars down and managed to stop them at a crossroads. One of the drivers attempted to drive straight at a border guard with the intention of knocking him down. This led to warning shots being fired into the tires of the vehicle.
The border guard was knocked over, and the car traveled a little further until driving off the road. The police eventually stopped the car. In each of the vehicles that were stopped, there were illegal migrants, probably from Iraq.
Both the Indian and the Pakistani have been charged with organizing an illegal border-crossing and for failing to stop when signaled to do so. The man from India has also been charged with causing bodily harm to the border guard he knocked over, which could lead him to face a 10-year jail sentence.
For the time being, the two drivers were arrested for a period of three months. The injured border guard was not seriously hurt and received treatment at the local hospital.
