Wrong place wrong time: Robbers kill teenage shopkeeper

Assistant commissioner announces Rs20,000 compensation for family.

RAWALPINDI:

Hundreds of residents blocked the Benazir Bhutto Road on Tuesday after a 19-year-old boy was shot dead during a robbery in Sadiqabad on Monday night.

The police said three armed robbers entered a bakery and looted cash and mobile phones from those present. “While leaving, they fired warning shots so no one would try to stop them,” said a police officer of the Sadiqabad Police Station. The deceased, Shehzad Ahmed, a resident of Sargodha, had been working at a dairy milk shop owned by his brother-in-law for the last two years. He was his father’s only son and the sole bread-winner of his five-member family.



The police official said Ahmed came out of his shop after hearing gunshots, and in an instant reaction, the robbers opened fire on him, hitting him in the chest. He died on the spot.

Ahmed’s relatives and local traders staged a protest in the morning and blocked Haji Chowk and Charah Chowk by burning tyres on the road. The traders of the locality observed a shutter-down strike and demanded that the police arrest the killers.

Talking to The Express Tribune, local traders’ union president Fiaz Satti said the police have miserably failed to control crime in the city. “Robberies are not possible without police connivance,” Satti alleged.



“When someone’s house or shop is robbed, the local police suggest that the victims give alms to charity rather than trying to arrest the robbers and killers,” said Faiz Muhammad, a local shopkeeper, whose shop was also robbed a week ago. He said instead of registering a first information report, the police asked him to give alms to the poor as he got out of the incident unharmed.

Later, Assistant Commissioner Quratulain announced Rs20,000 for the deceased and assured the protesting traders that the killers will be arrested soon. A murder case was registered against unknown killers at Bandkhanna check post while the deceased’s body was handed over to relatives.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2013.