KARACHI:
The Boat Basin police are hunting for two men who are believed to be involved in a non-fatal shooting at the Roadside Cafe on Friday evening.
Three men were reported to be involved in the attack. One of them was arrested soon after the incident as the trio was stopped for looking suspicious on their motorcycle. The other two fled. “We are hoping to solve this by Saturday night and will be carrying out raids at different places to arrest the two men,” said police detective Hameed Khan.
Lahore University of Management Sciences graduate Abdul Lateef Bawany is recovering from his gunshot wounds at Ziauddin Hospital. “He’s doing better,” said his uncle Tariq Bawany on Saturday. “We don’t know when he will be released yet but they do keep patients for 48 hours for observation.”
Lateef’s brother, Mohammad Ahmed, told The Express Tribune that the attack was not over a personal enmity. “Lateef was standing at the cash register waiting to pay his bill and put his wallet next to it,” he said. Someone tried to grab the wallet from beside Lateef and when he turned around to see who it was, he was shot point blank by the assailant. “It was the result of a thief who panicked and shot my brother.” He corroborated that there were three unidentified men who ran out of the restaurant.
Roadside reopened on Saturday after being advised by the police to do so. Sibte Sajjad, who runs the Boat Basin restaurant, told The Express Tribune that, “The restaurant is open.”
The semi-outdoors Roadside Cafe opened in 2008 and remains one of the more popular hangout cafes in the area. Its clientele ranges from designers to political analysts, musicians to teenagers. It is located in a quiet neighbourhood that is generally considered one of Karachi’s safest.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 7th, 2012.
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strange.....I have visited the cafe quite oft ............ the cash register / counter is at least 8 feet away from the main gate of the cafe & raised on a platform level & the thief would have to pass thru at least 4-5 tables to get to it & back (which are almost always occupied)....... I have never seen anyone pay at the cash counter, generally the server comes n collects the money / bill. However find it stranger the fact that none of the people sitting could put a leg out n trip the robber........so i guess what someone said was true "The only real man in Pakistan is a 14 year old schoolgirl"