Woman dies trying to stop teenage son from committing street crimes

A boy aged around 16 years was arrested by the Docks police on Thursday for his involvement in the death of his mother a day earlier at their house in Machhar Colony.

Police said 45-year-old Shamroz Rasheed Ahmed was trying to persuade her son — Nazeer, alias Nazeera — to stop committing street crimes, especially during the ongoing month of Ramazan, when she was shot.

She was taken to the Civil Hospital Karachi with critical wounds, but she succumbed to her injuries during treatment. Police have also arrested Nazeer’s accomplice, Hanif, as well as confiscated the pistol used in the incident.

The victim’s husband had earlier claimed in his statement that a stray bullet had killed his wife, while the police had previously suspected that the woman was killed while his son was cleaning a gun at home.

A case was registered against an unidentified person on behalf of the victim’s husband and the police had initiated their investigation from different angles, during which they brought in Nazeer for questioning.

Docks SHO Pervez Solangi said the police arrested him on a tip-off during a raid in Machhar Colony, adding that the investigators learnt that the suspect had also been involved in a number of cases of street crime.

Quoting the boy’s statement to the police, the officer said the suspect’s “mother was forcing me not to continue my street crime activities, especially in Ramazan. When she attempted to snatch my pistol from me, the gun was accidentally fired and a bullet hit her”.

Police said the suspect may be trying to save himself, so they are trying to ascertain if the woman was killed accidentally or intentionally. The suspect had initially escaped from the house after his mother was shot.

But the police conducted a raid on a tip-off in the Docks area and arrested him as well as his accomplice. The officials said both of them had been involved in different cases of street crime.