VIDEO: After pedestrians, criminals target pan shop in Karachi

KARACHI: The citizens of Pakistan's largest city continue to become the victim of street criminals, who aren't even sparing shopkeepers as robbers have now looted a betel (pan) shop in the metropolis, Geo News reported on Thursday.

The incident pertains to a robbery targeting a betel shop in Karachi's Gulshan-e-Iqbal 13-D area where unidentified men, who came in a police vehicle, looted Rs15,000 in cash and cigarettes worth up to Rs50,000 from a shopkeeper on June 12 at around 11pm.

The police have registered a first information report (FIR) of the incident on the complaint of the affected individual.

The FIR also mentions a similar incident where three men got away with Rs7,000 in cash on June 2 earlier this month.

According to the shopkeeper, he was made to sit in the police vehicle, which was missing its rear vehicle identification number (VIN), after the incident.

The FIR also mentions that the affectee was dropped off at the Gulshan-e-Iqbal roundabout after another Rs10,000 were looted from his pocket.

The police have said that they are trying to trace down the suspects and are reviewing the footage from the nearby closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in this regard.

The incident comes amid increased street crimes in the metropolis in recent months which have seen more than 70 people losing their lives at the hands of criminals in the ongoing year so far.

Despite a large number of criminals being incarcerated in the Karachi Central jail in the first five months of 2024, the law and order situation in the metropolis continues to deteriorate with citizens being looted and killed by street criminals.

Last month, President Asif Ali Zardari, while chairing a special meeting over the law and order situation in Sindh, directed Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to launch a large-scale operation against street criminals in Karachi.

The president ordered authorities concerned to complete the Karachi Safe City project "on a war footing" to eliminate street crimes and other illegal activities affecting the law and order situation in the port city.