KARACHI: A shopkeeper whose elder brother was recently killed in a suspected sectarian attack survived an attempt on his life in Incholi Society on Thursday afternoon when a mob got hold of two suspected hit men one of whom had allegedly tried to fire at the shopkeeper, according to police and witnesses.

The mob had severely beaten them up before the law-enforcers managed to take them away in an unconscious condition to a hospital.

As soon as Shakeel Haider arrived at his Haider Pakwan Centre in Block-17 of Federal B. Area adjacent to his home at around 3:30pm and got out of his car, two suspects came from behind him and one of them put a pistol to Mr Haider’s head and asked him to recite ‘Kalma,’ said Mr Haider’s nephew, Ahsan.

Mr Haider tried to push aside the attacker who opened fire but luckily the bullet got stuck in the pistol, giving Mr Haider an opportunity to raise alarm for help. His family members and area people rushed to his rescue and managed to get hold of the suspects.

They beat them up severely and in the meantime a man in the angry mob shot one of them in the leg.

In the meantime, contingents of police and Rangers rushed to the area. They faced some difficulty initially in controlling the situation as the angry mob was not ready to hand over the suspects to them.

Later, police and Rangers dispersed the mob by firing into the air and detained the suspects in an unconscious condition. They were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where their condition was stated to be serious, said Samanabad SHO Nadir Khan.

The officer identified the wounded suspects as Bilal Allah Ditta and Imran Latif and said at the moment they were not in a position to give a statement to police.

He said that Bilal hailed from Hub, Balochistan, while Imran was a resident of Hyderabad and claimed that the police had seized a 30-bore pistol, which appeared to be an old one with a bullet stuck inside.

The officer said the complainant, Shakeel Haider, told police that the suspects had made an attempt on his life but investigators were probing the veracity of his claims and possible affiliation of the suspects with any group.

Eight months ago, Mr Haider’s elder brother, Shahab Haider, was gunned down at his Al-Medina paan shop at around the same place in a sectarian attack, said the victim’s nephew, Ahsan.

But AIG Karachi police, Ghulam Qadir Thebo, said that a preliminary investigation suggested the incident was a robbery attempt. The suspects pursued Mr Haider after he drew cash from a bank branch in the area and tried to rob him, he said, adding that the suspects had no affiliation with any religious or political group.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014