In a brazen daylight robbery in Gulshan-e-Hadeed on Monday, three motorcycle-borne assailants ambushed 28-year-old Alam Khan and his two companions moments after they withdrew Rs890,000 from a bank. They then shot Khan dead.
According to eyewitnesses, the bandits intercepted Khan's vehicle, demanded the cash at gunpoint, and opened fire when he resisted, killing him instantly, while his companions miraculously escaped unharmed. The perpetrators then fled with both the cash and Khan's licensed pistol. The deceased's body was shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC).
Rahmat Jan Mahsood, cousin of the deceased, revealed that Khan was a father of two, and was running his own car business. He had recently purchased a car from a Gulshan-e-Hadeed resident whom he was heading to pay when he was ambushed. Expressing concerns about the city's safety, Rahmat said "People are being forced to sacrifice their lives for their own money." He alleged that the bandits likely had inside information about Khan carrying money, possibly from associates near the bank. Khan's relatives demand an investigation into the incident, appealing for the swift arrest of the killers.
With this incident, the number of citizens killed resisting robberies in the city this year hit 30.
Khan's killing sparked immediate protests, with family members, local residents, and car showroom owners blocking both tracks of the national highway, causing traffic congestion on the Karachi-Thatta road. To alleviate the situation, traffic police diverted traffic from Port Qasim and Link Road to the inner areas.
The protest, which lasted for more than five hours, not only brought the traffic system to a standstill but also caused massive traffic jams, putting commuters in a nerve-wracking situation.
Several citizens trapped in the severe traffic congestion said that a day earlier, on Sunday evening, a large number of area residents had also staged a demonstration against the rising incidents of street crimes and the poor performance of the police. During that protest as well, both tracks of the National Highway were blocked, causing serious difficulties for the general public.
"On one hand, citizens are being robbed at gunpoint, and on the other, they are losing their lives to the robbers' bullets," lamented one protester. The protest over the car showroom owner's killing by robbers was finally called off by the demonstrators at 7:45pm, after which traffic was restored.
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