Rangers soldier martyred near Jauhar Morr; police rule out mugging

A Rangers soldier was martyred near Gulistan-e-Jauhar Morr on Sunday. Police, however, have ruled out mugging. Moreover, another man was shot dead and four others were wounded by muggers, while a teenage girl was injured in firing at a wedding. Five members of a criminal gang were also arrested.

A Rangers soldier was seriously wounded by the firing of unknown suspects near Jauhar Morr in the Sharea Faisal police jurisdiction. Police and Rangers took the injured to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), where the doctors pronounced him martyred.

SHO Haji Ishaq said the victim, 41-year-old Khalid Hussain, was a soldier posted at the Rangers Headquarters, adding that the victim was out on a night pass. The officer said that the incident was initially reported as a robbery, but no evidence of it was found because the deceased had all his belongings with him.

The SHO said the deceased hailed from rural Sindh, and his brother had also been killed in their home town a few years ago, so it is suspected that this incident may be linked to that murder.

Police and Rangers are trying to obtain CCTV camera footage to help them investigate the incident, while the soldier’s family has also been approached for their assistance in solving the case.

Man shot dead

A young man was gunned down by muggers in the Gulistan-e-Jauhar neighbourhood. Mehtab Shah, 23, was shot at a shop near Jauhar Chowrangi in the Sharea Faisal police jurisdiction.

SHO Ishaq said the police found the man critically wounded and took him to the JPMC, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. He was a Jauhar resident and worked as a salesman at a grocery.

He was at the shop at night when robbers barged into the shop and told the owner to hand over his money, but the man threw a bottle on the suspects, who opened fire and hit Shah’s head.

Five wounded

Three people were injured in firing in the Gulshan-e-Maymar neighbourhood. Police and rescue workers took the wounded — Anas Idrees, 30, Usman Manaf, 28, and Aslam Amin, 40 — to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH). Police said they were injured during a robbery.

In another incident, motorcyclists fired at 30-year-old Rameez Ali, son of Bashir, during a robbery in Korangi, leaving him with severe wounds. He was taken to the JPMC.

Also in Korangi, 13-year-old Warda, daughter of Yasin, was injured by firing during a wedding in the jurisdiction of the Zaman Town police station. She was taken to the JPMC.

Five arrested

The Aziz Bhatti police engaged in a shootout with a six-member criminal gang in the early hours and arrested five of them in an injured condition. The suspects were wanted by the Karachi police in over 100 street crime cases.

Police said that a mobile was patrolling the area to prevent criminal activities when they were informed of a criminal gang robbing citizens on Hakim Said Road near the Urdu University.

Police mobiles, along with SHO Adeel Afzal, reached the crime scene, where they were fired at. Police returned fire and arrested five of them in an injured condition, but the sixth suspect escaped.

The injured — Abid, 21, Aslam, 17, Zubair Babul, 25, Ahsan, 18, and Anwar Zulfiqar, 26 — were taken to the JPMC. Police recovered five pistols with rounds, 20 mobile phones and three motorbikes from them.

Officials said the suspects were involved in several serious incidents, including street crimes, adding that the six-member gang impersonated the police. They said the suspects could be seen committing crimes in various CCTV camera footage, while several of their video clips had also been circulating on social media.

Police said Adeel Pariyal, the sixth gang member, had managed to escape. The phones recovered from the suspects had been snatched from the Ferozabad, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Aziz Bhatti and PIB Colony police jurisdictions, while the motorbikes had been stolen from the Sir Syed, Baloch Colony and Saudabad police jurisdictions.

The preliminary police investigation reveals that the suspects were involved in many cases of street crime and other robberies in the East, Korangi and Central districts, and they were wanted in over 100 cases in various police jurisdictions.

The recovered weapons have been sent to the forensic division of the Sindh police for examination, while more important revelations are expected from the suspects. Moreover, the previous records of the arrested men are being checked, while the search for their absconding accomplice is under way.

Couple found dead

Two bodies were found in Flat No. B1/2 of Al-Karam Square in the Sharifabad police jurisdiction. The bodies were shifted to ASH. Police identified the deceased as Shabbir, 60, and his wife Shakeela, 45. They said the cause of death will be ascertained after the post-mortem examination.