LAHORE, May 26: Two gunmen on Friday got away with gold worth Rs6.5 million from a busy Ichhra market. Three children also caught in a crossfire between market guards and the fleeing robbers.
Owner Anwar of the Sufi Jewellers told police that two gun-toting men stormed into his shop at Madina Market and held up him and his employees. He said the intruders collected gold jewellry worth Rs6.5 million and locked him and his employees in the shop.
Mr Anwar said he raised an alarm when the bandits were leaving his shop. One of his employees, who happened to be outside the shop, together with the guards of the market chased the miscreants. The employee and the guards opened fire on the fleeing gunmen who retaliated and managed their escape.
Three children playing outside the market got bullet injuries. They were rushed to the Services Hospital. They were identified as Hafeez, 7, Sheryar, 5, and four-year-old Nauman. Condition of one of the children was stated to be serious.
Two more armed men snatched calling cards and cash worth Rs300,000 from Samuel Masih at Omar Chowk in Green Town. Three robbers snatched Rs18,000 and a cell phone from a store owned by Talat on Lytton Road.
Yet two more miscreants drove away with a car besides snatching Rs10,000 and a cell phone from Sadaqat at Dhobi Ghat in Baghbanpura.
Cash over Rs30,000 and three cell phones were taken away in two strikes in Shahdara and Millat Park.
MURDER: A woman was found dead in her house while another died from bullet injuries she had got on May 19 in separate incidents in the city on Friday.
Police said widow Khurshid Anwar, 55, was found dead in her house in Race Course. Her hands and legs had been tied up and she had been hit in the head with a blunt weapon, the police said and quoted her family as saying that she had a money dispute with Raja Shakil.
Her body was removed to the city mortuary for autopsy. A case was registered with no arrest.
Meanwhile, Rehmat Bibi, who had got bullet injuries on May 19 at her Mohni Road house in the Lower Mall police area, died in the Mayo Hospital. The police said she had got a stray bullet when Sheraz Masih had an exchange of crossfire with Toni over some personal rivalry. Her body was removed to the mortuary. A case was registered with no arrest.