DADU, Sept 17: Neighbours foiled robbers’ attempt to kidnap two Hindu traders from their house in Mehar town on Monday.

Ten armed men barged into houses of Dr Mukesh Kumar and Dileep Kumar and tried to take away the traders but the neighbours came to their rescue after hearing hue and cry.

They surrounded the houses and made it difficult for them to get away with the hostages.

The robbers fired their way through the human cordon after 15 minutes and made away with the loot.The gang kept on firing into the air till they got away from the town but the firing failed to stir police into action.

Frustrated, members of the business community and activists of political parties took out a procession in protest against police inaction.

Ali Anwar Shaikh, Halim Shaikh and Hubdar Shah who led the protest said the criminals attempted to kidnap Hindu traders because they wanted to occupy their property.

They said that police had miserably failed to provide security to minority communities and threatened to hold a demonstration outside the office of DIG of Hyderabad if adequate security was not provided to Hindus immediately.

Hubdar Shaikh said that robbers were collecting protection money from traders but no law-enforcement agency was ready to lay hands on them.

Dr Mukesh Kumar said that he had been running a flour mill for the past 20 years and had no enmity with anybody. He said he had received threats from the criminals to pay them Rs200,000 protection money each month, when he refused they tried to kidnap him, he said.

He said that he had informed police about the threats and asked for security but they did not help him.

Dileep Kumar said the incident had created panic among the Hindu community and they would migrate to safe places if security was not provided to them.