Karachi: Vigilante action strikes again as 2 robbers beaten to death

[Naveed Yaseen]

KARACHI: Two men who were killed by a mob in Buffer Zone late Tuesday night have been identified by their families at the Edhi morgue. According to the police they did not have any criminal record.

One man was identified as Saleem Baig by his father Rasheed and the other was identified as Razik by his brother-in-law Haji Moula Dad. The two men were killed when they attempted to snatch valuables from a family near Taha Masjid, Sector 15-A-2, in the jurisdiction of Taimoria Police Station. They were beaten so badly by passers-by who set upon them that they died soon after being rescued by the police. Their bodies were taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

A man identified as Riaz Saeed lodged the FIR against them for trying to rob his family as he was taking his daughter to a clinic. When Riaz resisted, the men fired at him but missed. Fortunately, the road was blocked for construction work and upon hearing the commotion and cries for help people passing by and labourers overpowered the culprits. The police had to resort to aerial firing to disperse the crowd that fell upon the two men with sticks and stones.

Two separate FIRs have been registered, one on the complaint of victim Riaz Saeed and the other by the police against unidentified persons for beating the men to death. Razik was identified as a drug addict but his friend Saleem, a Baldia Town resident, used to run a passenger bus of route No. 19-D and had one daughter, said Station Investigation Officer (SIO) Javed Hussain. The motorcycle they used belonged to Nadeem, a bus cleaner. Nadeem lived with Saleem and Razik was a friend. They used an unlicensed pistol.

Arms dealer held, weapons recovered: The Crime Investigation Department (CID) arrested an arms dealer on Wednesday and recovered weapons from his possession.

Majeed alias Mamu alias Khan Sahab was arrested near Lucky Star after the CID received information from a spy, said Baldia Town CID SSP Choudhry Mohammad Aslam, adding that Majeed is a professional arms dealer and was in touch with most crime and terrorist groups as well as political parties. Majeed purchased weapons from different arms shops in Karachi, Quetta and Afghanistan and used to sell them. Two AK-47s with 500 rounds, seven repeater guns with 450 rounds, five pistols with 150 rounds and other weapons were also recovered.

According to an unconfirmed report, the accused is affiliated with a political party but SSP Khan denied this claim.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...008_pg12_7