May 18, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 12, 1429

KARACHI, May 17: An angry mob set on fire two robbers caught mugging bus passengers here on Saturday killing one of them, just three days after another mob had burnt three robbers to death, police said.

“They were robbing passengers on a bus when people from the neighbourhood caught them and beat them. They then set them on fire,” said Aleem Jafri, the local police chief.

Police came to the rescue of the torched men, but one later died in hospital, while the other was being treated for serious burns, according to another police officer.

It is relatively commonplace for people to beat criminals they catch, sometimes to death, but television and newspaper images this week of the torched victims of vigilante justice shocked many people.

Seventeen people were arrested following Wednesday’s incident, police said.

Karachi has a reputation for violence of all types, criminal, political and militant.—Reuters