KARACHI: In what appears to be a renewed wave of street crimes in the metropolis, armed muggers shot dead a human resource manager in front of his family and a teenager when they put up resistance to their robbery bids in different parts of the city on Friday.

Also on Friday, three more people were shot at and wounded by armed robbers over resistance in the city.

Gulistan-i-Jauhar SHO Pervez Bhutto said Zeeshan Afzal, 41, did some shopping from the Bin Hashim superstore near Munawar Chowrangi and drove to the Baloch Ice Cream shop with his wife and two children late on Thursday night.

The family was having ice cream when two armed robbers riding a motorbike pulled up there. One of them showed Afzal his pistol upon which he tried to grab his hand to tackle the armed robber. However the robber opened fire on him and escaped along with his accomplice from the busy area famous for restaurants and eateries on Prof Ghafoor Ahmed Road.

Muggers kill teenager, hurt three citizens over resistance in city

Afzal suffered a critical bullet wound in the head and was taken to the nearby Darul Sehat Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.

The SHO said the victim had lived in the United Kingdom and presently he was the human resources manager at The Kidney Centre.

The incident angered area residents, who staged a protest on the main road, causing a massive traffic jam on nearby roads.

Residents of Gulistan-i-Jauhar also took out a rally at Jauhar Chowrangi against the killing.

The protesters said local residents experienced a sudden rise in robbery incidents lately. They complained that police reached the crime scene very late.

However, SHO Bhutto said he along with other police officers was busy in security duties for a religious gathering held near the mausoleum of the Quaid-i-Azam on Thursday night. He said the police rushed to the spot after receiving information while Madadgar-15 police had already reached there.

In the second incident, a 17-year-old boy was shot dead by armed robbers when he put up resistance in Korangi Industrial Area (KIA) late on Thursday night, police said on Friday.

Area SHO Pir Shabbir Haider said that Talha Aslam was standing outside his home in KDA Allahwala Town, where the K-Electric was carrying out loadshedding as per daily routine.

Two armed motorcyclists approached him and tried to snatch his cell phone. The teenager put up resistance, upon which the robbers opened fire on him and fled along with the snatched cell phone.

The young boy suffered critical bullet wounds in the chest and was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.

Three citizens wounded by robbers

Meanwhile, three people were shot at and wounded by armed robbers over resistance in separate incidents in Orangi Town on Friday evening, police and rescue services officials said.

Two men, identified as Abdul Haseeb, 20, and Malak Zafar, 40, were shot at and critically wounded when they resisted a robbery bid in Baloch Goth.

In another incident in Raees Amrohi Colony in Sector-11 ½ in Orangi Town, 20-year-old Rizwan was shot at and wounded over resistance to a robbery bid.

All the wounded were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

Meanwhile, two suspected robbers Kashif, 28, and Abrar, 30, were shot and wounded in an encounter with police on Sharea Faisal near Chota Gate. They were taken into custody and moved to a hospital for treatment.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2022