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Thursday March 28, 2024

Police shoot dead man who killed student during mugging bid

By Our Correspondent
March 24, 2018

Aziz Bhatti police have shot dead a suspected robber and arrested his companion in a pre-dawn encounter in Dalmia on Friday, and said the two had allegedly killed a student during a mugging attempt in Gulistan-e-Jauhar on March 14.

Gulshan-e-Iqbal Division SP Ghulam Mutaza Bhutto, a team of Aziz Bhatti Police Station was carrying out snap checking on Dalmia Road when they flagged down two men on a motorcycle.

Instead of stopping, he said, the two opened fire on police, and attempted to escape. However, police shot and injured the pillion rider in retaliatory fire. The motorcycle driver lost control when the pillion passenger was wounded, and they both fell off the two-wheeler.

The police arrested the suspects and seized a 30-bore pistol and the motorbike. The injured man, identified as Salman, was taken to hospital, where he died during treatment. During the initial interrogation, Salman’s companion, identified as Riaz, told police that they jointly mugged citizens in various parts of Gulistan-e-Jauhar and Gulshan-e-Iqbal.

He also admitted that they, along with another companion, Nasir, shot dead a student, Asad Khan, when the latter resisted a snatching bid in Gulistan-e-Jauhar’s Block I on March 14. SP Bhutto said police had started conducting raids to arrest Nasir as well.

FIR registered

The Boat Basin police lodged an FIR against three unknown men who had shot dead a Pakistan Army soldier, Lance Naik Rawesh Khan, during an attempt to loot cash from an NLC van near the Boat Basin traffic signal on Thursday.

Clifton Division SP Tauqeer Muhammad Naeem told The News that the armed men intercepted the National Logistics Cell’s cash van near the traffic signal and opened fire at it when its occupants tried to resist the robbery attempt.

According to Naeem, when the robbers intercepted the van, Lance Naik Rawesh Khan, who was accompanying the van’s occupants in civvies, was wounded in the shooting. He said Khan was hit by bullets when he tried to pull out his weapon to deter the robbers.

A patrol mobile of Boat Basin police reached the site at once and gave chase to the robbers, but they managed to escape in an exchange of gunfire. The van’s occupants, Rawesh Khan, 32, Abdus Sattar, 35 and Iftikhar, 45, were shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where Khan succumbed to his injuries.

Taking notice of the firing on the NLC van, Sindh Inspector General Police AD Khowaja directed District South’s SSP to submit an inquiry report and mention the steps being taken to arrest the suspects.

Home Minister Sohail Anwar Khan Siyal also took notice of the incident and directed the District South’s deputy inspector general of police to submit a report to him immediately. Also on Thursday, two other citizens were injured in robbers’ shootings near Aga Khan Park in Soldier Bazaar.

According to Station House Officer Rafay Tanoli, the incident took place at Diamond Shopping Mall near the park wherein muggers shot and injured 35-year-old Ramzan and 50-year-old Fida Ali when they resisted a snatching bid.

SHO Tanoli added that a patrol team of the Soldier Bazaar police reached the site and arrested one of the suspects. He was identified as Naushad Ali and a TT pistol was found on him.

In yet another incident, muggers left 40-year-old Liaquat injured near Hamdard University along the Northern Bypass after robbing him of his valuables.