Franchise attack: Warid sales officer shot dead

Kamal resisted when the men tried to loot the shop, and was shot thrice.

KARACHI: A regional sales officer (RSO), Ahsan Kamal, of Warid was shot dead at one of the company’s franchises in Mehmoodabad on Wednesday evening.

Two armed men entered the franchise near Shafi Biryani House and asked the salesman to issue duplicate SIM cards. When the salesman asked them for their identity cards, the men pulled out their weapons. When they tried to loot the shop, Kamal resisted and the men shot him three times and he died on the spot. The attackers escaped.

Kamal was first taken to a private hospital nearby from where he was referred to Jinnah hospital. He was a resident of Jacob Lines in Jamshed Town and had worked at the Warid franchise for over a year.

The police said that the circumstances suggested that Kamal was killed for putting up a resistance to the robbery, but they were investigating the case from all possible angles.

Since December 2011, two franchises, of Telenor and Mobilink each, have been attacked, in which two people died and four were injured.

Although the Crime Investigation Department arrested the man they said was responsible for the franchise attacks they had also warned that there might be more.

The man they had nabbed was from the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and was targeting the franchises to compel the telecom companies to pay extortion.

But SHO Aslam Kakrani said that this incident was different in nature since the staff said that Kamal was killed during a robbery. But he couldn’t be sure about the motive till the investigation was completed.

“Because of the earlier attacks on franchises we cannot declare this incident as a robbery,” said Kakrani. “But often the events are misinterpreted.” Kakrani said that the men fled without taking anything from the shop. He said that the victim was not related to any political or religious party. No case was registered till the filing of the story.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2012.