KARACHI: A late-night shootout between suspected bandits and a security guard of a minimart in Shah Latif Town claimed the life of a four-year-old girl, who was riding a motorbike driven by her father, police and witnesses said on Thursday.

They said six armed men riding three motorbikes pulled up at the mart and three of them made their way into it. Another one disarmed the security guard and held him hostage at gunpoint while the remaining two stayed outside with their motorbikes.

“When the bandits were coming out after looting the cash and mobile phones from the staff and customers in the mart, its manager started shouting making two of the bandits to open fire. In the meantime, the security guard managed to set himself free and get back his gun. He returned the fire wounding one of the bandits. All the six bandits, who had pistols, kept firing which forced the security guard to stop shooting,” a police official said.

He added that during the shootout, a motorbike was caught in crossfire and one bullet hit the girl, later identified as Armeen, riding with her father. She received the bullet in her head.

After the bandits drove away, the area people and wounded girl’s family members rushed her to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where she underwent a surgery but could not survive.

The case was registered against unknown suspects. Shah Latif Town SHO Inspector Mumtaz Marwat argued that the security guard used a shotgun and the bandits had pistols.

“The girl seems to have sustained a pistol bullet wound,” he added citing the wound on her head. However, he said, a final medical report was awaited.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2021