Karachi varsity student shot dead in robbery bid

Police chief attributes rise in incidents of street crime to flailing economy

KARACHI: A young woman was shot dead by robbers on Thursday morning as she waited with her father for her university shuttle in Gulshan-e-Iqbal. The victim, identified as Misbah, daughter of Athar Noor, was a fourth-year student of Eastern Medicine and Surgery at Hamdard University.

At around 7:05am on Thursday morning, the victim was waiting for the university shuttle in her father’s car near Mochi Mor when two armed robbers riding a motorcycle rapped on their window.

The victim’s paternal uncle, Sajid Latif, told The Express Tribune that the robbers told the victim and her father to hand over all the valuables.

“They gave everything without putting up any resistance,” said Latif. As they were leaving, however, the robbers opened fire at the vehicle and a bullet hit Misbah in the head.

12-year-old killed in Karachi police shootout

The victim was immediately rushed to a private hospital in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, where doctors pronounced her dead on arrival.

A star student

According to the victim’s family, Misbah was an excellent student and always topped her class. She was a resident of Abid Town, Gulshan-e- Iqbal.

Misbah’s maternal grandfather told the media that she was the eldest among three siblings. Lambasting law enforcers over the incident, the victim’s grandfather demanded that security should at the very least be provided to children who left their homes to get an education. A maternal aunt of the victim demanded the police to arrest her murderers and bring them to justice.

The funeral prayers were offered at Ghausia Memon Masjid in Abid Town after Zuhr prayers and were attended by relatives, acquaintances and students of Hamdard University. Misbah was laid to rest at Essa Nagri Graveyard.

Police investigations

According to Gulshan-e-Iqbal Police SHO Safdar Mashwani, the incident was a case of resistance during the robbery bid.

On the other hand, SSP Ghulam Azfar Mahesar told the media that the robbers had dropped their pistol on the ground during the robbery and they fired at the car after picking it up. “They fired a single shot and only one empty shell was found from the site,” said SSP Mahesar, adding that the casing had been sent to the laboratory for forensic analysis.

He added that the police had also spoken to eye-witnesses, who saw the entire exchange. “It is clearly an incident of robbery during which only one bullet was fired which unfortunately hit Misbah,” said the SSP.

Police are trying to obtain CCTV footages from the cameras installed in the vicinity while the sketches of the accused are being made with the help of eye-witnesses.

Worrying numbers

In September alone, as many as four people were killed during robbery bids in different parts of the metropolis. Over 30 others have been injured in the hundreds of incidents of street crime across the city.

The deceased included a Rangers official and a personnel of the Pakistan Army. The Rangers official, identified as Lance Naik Mir Afzal, was shot dead on the night between September 19 and September 20 in Baldia Town. On September 28, a Pakistan Army soldier, Asad Ali, was shot dead for putting up resistance to a robbery bid.

No respite

For the past few years, law enforcement agencies have been citing the decline in incidents of terrorism that had at one point become a hallmark of the city, as an indicator of their good performance. What they seem to have missed out on, however, is the rise in the incidence of street crime.

Over the past eight months, data compiled by the Citizens Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) shows a steady month-on-month rise in the incident of mobile snatching, with other 13,000 mobile phones having been snatched at gunpoint between January and August 2019. This figure, however, could well be understated because victims often don’t report such crimes.

The economic connection

For their part, police officials believe that the rise in the incidence of street crime is directly linked to the economy. “Across the world, poverty is the number one reason for crime,” said Sindh Police chief IGP Dr Kaleem Imam, while addressing a delegation of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry. “Karachi is plagued by an ever-growing population, lack of employment opportunities, disputes over land, inflation and the use of narcotic substances,” he said.

The IGP was of the opinion that the whole society would have to unite and work towards accountability, besides the provision of better health and educational facilities.