KARACHI: Some unknown suspects set a stationery shop on fire in New Urdu Bazaar in Nazimabad, in what appears to be an attempt to torch the entire market, it emerged on Sunday.

The CCTV footage, which has gone viral on social media, showed the arsonists arriving in a car and on a motorcycle at the books market. One of them took out a bottle and sprinkled what appears to be petrol at a shuttered books and stationery shop before setting it on fire with a matchstick.

Central SSP Dr Mohammed Imran Khan, who visited the spot and met the complainant shopkeeper on Sunday, told Dawn that the suspects set the book shop located at a corner of the market on fire. However, the fire was timely put out.

He said the complainant told the police that he did not have any enmity with anyone.

Men in a vehicle and on a motorcycle pull up at shop, ignite fire with ‘petrol’; FIR registered

The SSP said they have obtained the CCTV footage and are trying to ascertain ownership of the vehicle.

He said it was being investigated whether the incident was motivated by personal enmity or by some other factor.

Rizvia police have registered an FIR under Sections 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substances intended to destroy a house, place of worship, or property storage) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the shopkeeper, Hafiz Mansoor Ahmed, the owner of Mehran Book Centre.

According to the FIR, the complainant said he closed his shop at around 5.45pm on March 20 due to Eidul Fitr on the next day and went to his residence in PECHS near Noorani Kabab. On March 21 at around 11.45pm, he received a call from his colleagues at the market that unidentified suspects had set the shop on fire. He rushed to the place where the fire was controlled by shopkeepers themselves. However, some books and stationery were damaged in the incident.

The CCTV footage obtained from a nearby shop showed a white-coloured car and two people on a motorcycle pulling up there. The persons in the car stopped their vehicle and talked with the men riding the bike. The people parked their vehicle near the shop while the pillion rider who carried a bottle containing, what appears to be, petrol torched the shop and fled.

The complainant said that the suspects traveling in the car and bike had torched his shop because of some unknown reasons with the help of petrol.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2026