RAWALPINDI: Police are investigating the murder of a 69-year-old trader during an attempted house robbery in Gulshan-i-Jalil locality on Friday night.

The deceased was identified as Mohammad Haroon Qureshi, a trader associated with optics business in Saddar.

A girl also sustained a bullet injury during the botched up robbery. In the First Information Report (FIR), Arshad Haroon told the Morgah police that his daughter Mahnoor was in the lawn of the house when the robbers entered the premises. As she started crying, his father Haroon Siddiqui came out and saw the armed men dragging her.

“When my father shouted, one of the armed men shot him dead. My daughter managed to run away but the robbers shot and injured her,” he added.

A senior police official said it was the third incident on Friday night and apparently by the same gang in the same area. He said the robbers also scaled the walls of the house of Chaudhry Nabil but escaped after the inmates shouted for help.

The police said the gang also struck in the house of Mohammad Imran and held the family at gunpoint.

“The robbers pointed pistols at women and asked them to hand them jewellery and cash,” said the police.

When contacted, SHO Morgah Yasir Abbas said the police took fingerprints from the crime scene and forwarded it to the National Database and Registration Authority. He said CCTV footage from a local hotel located on the route of the robbers had also been obtained. He said police would soon arrest the gang.

“The robbers were wearing masks and it would be difficult to identify them through the CCTV footage but we are taking steps to identify them through modern technology,” he said.

Meanwhile, Punjab Law Minister Basharat Raja visited the house of the deceased trader and assured his family that the culprits would be arrested soon.

Talking to mediapersons, the minister said the crime rate had gone up in Rawalpindi and action would be taken against police high-ups. Later, the minister visited the Morgah police station and checked the record of cases. He directed the police to trace the robbers involved in the killing of the trader.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2019