KARACHI: A Pakistan army soldier was killed while resisting a mugging in Orangi Town on Saturday hours before one of the suspected armed bandits was shot dead by area police in a shootout, officials said.

They said 32-year-old Sajid Khan was attacked by four men riding two motorbikes in Sector 4-F when he resisted the mugging. He was hit by multiple bullets and died while being moved to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

“The victim was a Pakistan army soldier posted in Okara,” said Inspector Fasih-uz-Zaman, the SHO of the Pirabad police station. “He was talking on his cellphone near Japani Gali in Sector 4-F when four men on two motorbikes emerged there and stopped close to him. Two of them got off the motorbike, pulled out a pistol and snatched his cellphone.” Sajid challenged the bandits and after a scuffle, he said, one of the bandits fired shots which hit him and proved fatal. The body was handed over to the family after medico-legal formalities at the ASH.

“After the incident the police pursued the investigation on a faster pace and gathered relevant details according to the statements of eyewitnesses,” he said. “The police cordoned off the area, raided several places and finally spotted three suspects on a motorbike in Sector 4-F. When the police tried to stop them, they fired shots at the police mobile, which triggered a shootout.”

He said one of the suspects was shot dead. He said the suspect was identified by at least three eyewitnesses.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2014