School principal gunned down by muggers

The principal of a private school was shot dead in front of her husband and their son by two muggers in Parsi Colony in the wee hours of Saturday.

SHO Rafay Tanoli of the Soldier Bazaar police station said two men riding a motorbike intercepted a car at around 2:30am and tried to snatch cash, mobile phones and other valuable items from the family.

One of the robbers shot the 40-year-old woman, Ambreen, wife of Ali Hussain, when he suspected that her husband was trying to pull out a gun. The two then fled. Soon police arrived at the scene and took Ambreen to the Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi, where doctors pronounced her dead.

SHO Tanoli said the victim’s husband was trying to reach for a cellphone which had slipped from his hand after his wife had handed it over to him. But the muggers suspected he was pulling out a gun to shoot them, he added.

The victim was the principal of a private school located in the Soldier Bazaar and a resident of Parsi Colony. The family had been returning home after attending a ceremony. Dr Rizwan, superintendent of Jamshed Division, it was too early to confirm it was mugging incident. He said the motive would be confirmed after the arrival of the postmortem report. Sindh Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal took notice of the incident and directed the senior superintendent of police of District East to submit an inquiry report.

Street crime incidents are on the rise in Karachi and give the lie to the claims regularly made by government functionaries and police high-ups that steps were being made to curb control muggings in the metropolis.

On Thursday night, The News Foreign Desk Editor Qazi Ghulam Mohiuddin was robbed near the SM Law College. Mohiuddin was on his way to the office when two men on a motorcycle intercepted him. As the pillion rider held him at gunpoint, he was forced to hand over his CNIC, ATM card, office card and Rs5,000 cash.