RAWALPINDI, July 12: A trader was shot dead and another person wounded after they offered resistance to a gang of robbers who snatched Rs450,000 from them in Westridge on Thursday.

Sardar Ghulam Mustafa, 47, along with 40-year-old Tanveer Ahmad was going home after getting changed foreign currency notes valuing Rs600,000 from the Mall Plaza in Saddar when three armed motorbike riders blocked their way at Dhoke Mustakeem.

The robbers threatened to kill them if the bag containing the cash was not handed over to them. A scuffle broke out between them during which the robbers shot and injured Ghulam Mustafa and Tanveer and escaped with Rs450,000.

People from the neighborhood attempted to intercept the fleeing robbers but the latter fired gunshots into the air to keep them away. The injured were taken to the District Headquarters Hospital where Ghulam Mustaf was pronounced dead while Tanveer was out of danger. “The injured victim was beaten with the pistol butt while the deceased suffered fatal bullet injuries,” a doctor who conducted postmortem on the body told Dawn.

Earlier, a woman and her two children were taken hostage by a taxi driver who robbed her of gold ornaments and escaped after pushing them out of the vehicle in Sadiqabad area.

Mohammad Imran, the husband of the victim complained to the police that his wife along with her two children was returning home from a market in a taxi when she was robbed of eight gold bangles and a ring weighing approximately eight tolas. In a similar incident, three robbers entered the house of Amir Anwar in Harley Street after midnight and snatched Rs50,000 in cash, gold ornaments valuing Rs1.8 million, eight wristwatches and four digital cameras. —Mohammad Asghar