RAWALPINDI, Aug 27: Two persons were shot dead and another was injured by a gang of robbers who stormed into a post office on Saidpur Road and made off with Rs117,000 on Monday.

The bandits stormed into the mini-post office in Ashraf Plaza at 2.30pm, held the postmaster Mohammad Saeed and his colleague Aurangzeb at gunpoint and forced them to give up the keys of the safe and the cash. Aurangzeb had come from the General Post Office (GPO) to collect the daily cash.

The robbers snatched Rs112,000 from the safe and about Rs5,000 and some cellphones from the counter. As soon as the robbers moved out, the robbery victims started shouting which caught the attention of the people in the nearby markets.

On seeing the people coming towards them, the robbers resorted to firing in the air to keep them away, but somehow the people succeeded in overpowering one of the robbers.

When the panicked robbers saw their accomplice caught by the people and being beaten up, they directed their guns towards the mob. As a result, a passerby identified as Mohammad Nasir was killed on the spot while the GPO employee, Aurangzeb, and Mohammad Idris, a shopkeeper, sustained injuries.

During the melee, the robbers succeeded to release their colleague from the custody of the people and took him away in a car despite extensive police patrolling and random checking in the city.

The two injured were removed to different hospitals. Later in the evening, Aurangzeb died at the Rawalpindi General Hospital.

Inspector Asghar Goraya, the SHO of New Town, said one of the accomplices of the robbers who was captured was beaten up and injured by the public.

After the incident, the residents came out of their shops and houses and staged a protest demonstration on Saidpur Road. The protesters demanded the police authorities to provide them protection and arrest the culprits.

Meanwhile, a press statement issued by the City Police Office on behalf of the IGP on Monday claimed that the crime rate had decreased throughout the province.

The claim by the IGP was made at a meeting held to review the crime situation and ongoing campaign against illegal weapons on Sunday. The meeting was told that Punjab police had recovered 45,003 illegal weapons and registered 43,310 cases against their holders during the last seven months.

The weapons recovered included 359 Kalashnikoves, 3,145 rifles, 5,073 guns and 30,332 revolvers/pistols.

The IGP asked the participants of the meeting to control the curse of illegal weapons to eliminate crimes besides taking strict action against the outlaws.

Stafff Reporter from Islamabad adds: Two persons were killed and another was injured in separate road accidents on Monday, police said.

Taimoor Shahzad, 18, was going on a motorcycle along with his mother Jamila Bibi when a pickup knocked them down at Bunni bus stop near Golra railway station. As a result, they sustained critical injuries.