Police clueless in Australian woman mugging case

She was allegedly mugged at gunpoint in Super Market last month, but officials say no gun used

ISLAMABAD: Two weeks after an Australian woman was mugged at gunpoint in the capital’s upscale Super Market area, police are still clueless about the criminals involved.

Jennifer Isobel McKay recalled that the incident took place at around 7:20pm on the evening of October 22 when unidentified gunmen pressed a pistol to her head and grabbed her handbag.



“I was robbed in my car at gunpoint in the car park of Sector F-6 Super Market at 7:20pm. They put a gun to my head and grabbed my handbag and ran,” Mckay maintained in her application to the police. The handbag, she said, contained $250 and around Rs10,000.

Though the Kohsar police had registered a case for snatching the same day, they have yet to identify and track down the suspect. Police officials say cameras installed around the area show a man robbing the woman but the footage is not clear enough to identify the man.

The ease with which the mugging took place has raised questions about the performance of security officials since the area is littered with police checkpoints while officials from the paramilitary Rangers and police regularly patrol the Super Market area.

This is not the first time a foreigner has fallen prey to street crime in the upscale F-6 neighbourhood this year.

Earlier on April 25, a Canadian senator of Pakistani origin was also mugged in the Super Market by two motorbike riders.

The police, however, were able to arrest the suspects within two days and recover the valuables of Senator Salma Attaullahjan. However, police have yet to complete their investigations and submit a challan in the court in that case.

Later in July this year, a cabbie allegedly stole the bag of a French woman from Super Market.

Laurian Houbian was sitting with a friend on a bench outside a fast food outlet in Super Market on July 1 when a man stole her bag and apparently fled in a taxi in early hours of the morning.

The bag contained her laptop, camera, mobile phone and cash. The police had registered a case against the unidentified thief.

Interestingly, in McKay’s case, police have registered a theft case — Section 382 (theft) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) — rather than of an armed robbery — Section 392 (robbery) of the PPC — in the FIR even though the woman clearly mentioned in her application that she was mugged at gunpoint.

Normally, police book suspects under the latter if the robbery involved the use of a gun.



ASI Muhammad Akram, the investigation officer of the case, maintained that no gun was involved in the incident and termed the woman’s claim that she was mugged at gunpoint was false.

Moreover, he clarified that there was only one man was involved in the incident, not multiple officials. Moreover, he has not been identified yet.

The Express Tribune tried to contact the Australian woman for comments but she could not be reached.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2017.