SANGHAR, July 7: Violence broke out here on Saturday following murder of a petrol pump guard by robbers, who were arrested by a joint team of footprint-trackers and police later.

Angry mobs pelted stones at shops and vehicles to enforce a strike in the town and lit bonfires prompting closure of business for several hours.

Reports from the area said that two robbers struck at the Pak Petroleum Service, a petrol pump along the Head Jamrao Road, at about 4am on Saturday and broke into the guard room by smashing glass of the door. The noise woke up the guard, Dilshad Karnali alias Haji, who was taken to the room of the cashier, Shamoon Masih, at gunpoint.

The robbers ordered the cashier to hand over all the money in his safe. At one point, the guard took a chance to bring his rifle placed in the adjacent store but the robbers sensed his intention and one of them fired a shot in his head killing Karnali on the spot.

The robbers severely beat up the cashier before snatching the keys of vault from him.

After collected about Rs8,000 from the vault, the robbers pushed Masih into a room, locked it from outside and fled with the guard’s gun.

Masih called owner of the petrol pump who alerted police.

A police team, led by the DSP, Iqbal Qadri, rushed to the scene and immediately started hunt for the robbers. A large number of local residents also assembled there. Some of them appeared to be footprint-takers who led police to a house, owned by a Chandio clansman, in village Gul Hassan Wassan, near Sim Nullah.

Police took the man in custody but he clarified that he had hosted two Lashari clansmen, residents of village Hashim Lashari, at around midnight. He told police that the guests were served food and they left.

Police and the trackers drove to Lashari village and spotted a man moving suspiciously upon seeing them. He was chased and overpowered. He identified himself as Mohammed Ayub Lashari and named his companion, Asghar, saying that he had managed to slip out of the village. Asghar was also picked up from a hide-out in the nearby village.

As the police and people returned, all shops and markets in the town were closed and mobs were busy putting up barricades on different roads demanding arrest of the culprits.

The agitation ended after the elders of Karnali clan informed the agitators that the robbers had been arrested.