Kohinoor market robbery: Nine people taken into custody

Police yet to arrest 24-year-old Shakeel, the market’s chowkidar, who is main in the accused of robbery.

KARACHI: The police conducted a raid on Saturday at the house of the main accused in the robbery at the Kohinoor mobile market in Saddar and took nine people into custody for interrogation. However, no one has admitted to the crime yet.

The shutters and locks for 25 to 30 shops were broken late Thursday night and shopkeepers suffered losses worth hundreds of rupees.

The police have yet to arrest 24-year-old Shakeel, the market’s chowkidar, who is the main accused of robbing mobile phones and other equipment, said Muhammad Javed, owner of Muskan mobile shop. He claimed that the accused had stolen goods worth Rs1.5 million from his shop alone.

The shops robbed by the accused are all dealers of mobile phones. The shopkeepers pointed out that even though there are other electrical appliance shops in the market, the accused had not broken shutters of any other outlets but those selling mobile phones.

Since the incident, Shakeel has been missing which makes him the prime suspect. He had been working at the market for five days. The previous chowkidar had left for his village, before which he had introduced Shakeel to the market administration, saying that the latter would take his place.

DSP Qasim Ghauri said that the police had obtained Shakeel’s NIC which had led them to identify the village he hailed from. He said that they will first search for him in Karachi and move to his village if he is not found here.

It was also revealed that on Thursday, the chowkidar, Saleem, had been roaming around the market, asking the prices of various mobile phones. He had also come to Muhammad Javed to inquire about the prices.

Javed said that the Preedy investigation police had taken another chowkidar, Sohrab Khan, of the market into custody for investigations. However, Khan told the police that as he had not been feeling well on Thursday, he had left the market at 1 am.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 12^th, 2010.