LAHORE, July 5: The divisional superintendent of the Railways’ Mughalpura Workshops was shot dead by robbers at his residence in the Batapur area on early Wednesday morning.

The family of Noor Muhammad Khan Mahsood, 55, said five men, four of them with masks, broke into the house at Griffin Colony in Mughalpura at around 2am after cutting the lock of the main gate. The intruders held up Mahsood’s son Arif who was asleep in the courtyard and forced him to take them to the room of his father.

The intruders asked Mahsood to call all the family members in his room. Later, three of them started collecting household items from other rooms.

Mahsood asked the intruders to take away whatever they wanted and not to harass the family.

His family said Mahsood tried to overpower one of the two robbers left in the room, but his accomplice shot at him in the temple, killing him instantly.

Later, they fled with jewellery, a cell phone, a rifle and a pistol.

Arif believed the murder of his father was a target killing. “The intruders didn’t hurt me though I had resisted,” he told reporters after the funeral prayers for his father.

“My father was a righteous person and had no enmity with anyone.” The dacoit without mask was 30 years old and seemed to be the ringleader, Arif said.

Mahsood’s brother Dost Muhammad demanded that the government probe into the incident, bring the “real” culprits to book and punish them.

Batapur police have registered a case and are investigating.

Born on Nov 13, 1951, at a remote village of Dera Ismael Khan, Mahsood completed his graduation in mechanical engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore. He joined the Railways in 1977 as assistant mechanical engineer.

He worked as divisional superintendent of Rawalpindi from June 20, 2005, to Feb 1, 2006, and as the project director of the 1300 High Capacity Wagons project from July 10, 2006, to Dec 12, 2006, when he was made the Mughalpura Workshops DS.

Funeral prayers for Noor Mahsood were offered at the Griffin Ground in the evening. Later, his body was taken to his ancestral village for burial.

Railways Minister Shaikh Rashid, all principal officers and a good number of employees at the PR headquarters, Lahore Division and Mughalpura Workshops offered the prayers.