Caught red-handed: Thieves beaten up by citizens, arrested by police

One of them had several broken bones from the beating.

MULTAN:

In two incidents in the city here on Thursday, robbers were beaten up by citizens before being handed over to the police.

The first incident took place at Nishtar Hospital.

Police said Muhammad Ehsan, who was visiting his sister at the hospital, saw a man trying to cut the wire lock on his motorcycle that he had parked in the parking lot.

Ehsan told police that he did not stop the thief thinking he would flee. He said instead he went to the security post at the exit, while keeping an eye on the thief.

When the thief approached the exit, Ehsan and the guards caught him and beat him up.

Some other people also joined them in the beating.

Cantonment police were informed. They rescued the robber, later identified as Muhammad Sabir, and took him to the hospital. Doctors said he had a few broken bones.

He was later reported to be out of danger.

Police said Sabir had confessed to stealing bicycles and motorcycles from the parking lot and selling them.

He told police that he worked with three other men. He said they worked in shifts and mostly stole bicycles and motorcycles from hospitals.

He said they would later sell the stolen vehicles for half the original price.

Police said they were looking for Sabir’s accomplices.

Three arrested while fleeing

Elsewhere, three men said to be robbers were caught by citizens as they were fleeing allegedly with stolen goods. They were beaten up and handed over to the police. Police said two of them were brothers, identified as Rashid and Arshad.

Police said they discovered that Rashid and Arshad had been imprisoned on charges of robbery before. They said they had recently been released after serving their jail term.

Police said the three men were drug addicts and that they bought heroin with the money collected from selling stolen items.

Police said they hoped to trace the narcotics dealers using information provided by the three men.

Police took the three injured men to a hospital, from where they were later taken to the police station.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2013.