MULTAN: A pal of gloom hangs over the home of a family which has lost its bread-winner during a robbery bid just few days before Eid.
Six-year-old Rida Siddiqui, the youngest member of the family, is perplexed to see her father missing just ahead of Eid as she is unaware of the fact that robbers had shot dead him on Oct 2. The innocent questions she puts to the family are an indictment of the police failure to curb crime.
Raza Siddiqui, a resident of Z Town, was at his doorstep when two armed motorists held him up and asked him to hand over all the belongings he had at that time. Raza handed over his wallet and cell phone to the robbers and as the phone dropped on the ground, the robbers opened fire in confusion.
Many robbed of Eid joy in Multan region
Hearing the fire shots, Raza’s elder brother Asif Siddiqui rushed out of the house and robbers opened fire on him killing him on the spot.
“He embraced my death. I lost him in front of my eyes but the greater pain I cannot endure is the questions his only daughter keep asking from everyone,” said Raza. He said celebrating Eid was out of question and it’s difficult to hold back tears.
He said the family had told her that her father had gone for Eid shopping and “she tells everyone she will celebrate Eid as her father will bring new dress, bangles, henna, sweets, balloons and doll.”
“I will celebrate Eid only with my Baba,” insists the one-class student who used to be dropped to and picked from school by her father, a rickshaw-driver.
Earlier on Sept 1, two robbers gunned down petrol pump employee Muhammad Arshad near Tehsil Chowk in the Gulgasht police jurisdiction.
Vehari resident Salma, 30, was killed by robbers in the Bahauddin Zakariya police precinct on Sept 16. Salma had just sold out her property at 7-T area of Makhdoom Rashid and visited the offices of the revenue department established in the newly-constructed building of the Judicial Complex. The armed men deprived her of Rs700,000 and life.
It was on Sept 19 Mursaleen, a resident of Bangla Basant (Jalla Arrain police area of Lodhran) was killed by three bandits.
Shakeel Ahmad, a resident of Vehari’s Chak EB/293, breathed his last this past Sept 19 -- nine months after he was injured during a robbery at his home. The Sahoka police registered a case (FIR No 353/13) but failed to arrest the criminals all these months.
On Sept 26, passerby Muhammad Ejaz was killed at Choppar Hatta, Sardarpur Road by two robbers. The robbers were caught by the locals and handed over to the Sarai Sidhu police in Khanewal district.
Ahmad Ali, who was employed as a security guard at a petrol pump at Takenwala (Basti Malook), was gunned down by a robber he was chasing on Sept 30.
The robbery and murder incidence has assumed alarming proportions exposing the police claims about their efficiency. According to the police data 10 people were killed in robbery incidents in Multan Region’s Khanewal, Vehari, Multan and Lodhran districts during the last one month.
“The police are responsible for crime as their officials are found involved in most such cases,” alleges a social organisation activist. He says the direct involvement of the police employees in criminal activities has been proved with the RPO’s confirmation about the arrest of several officials at a press conference.
RPO Amjad Javed Saleemi did not respond to calls and text message by this correspondent.
Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014
