RAWALPINDI, Nov 20: A man was shot dead by a shopkeeper over faulty mobile phone SIM (subscriber identity module) in Hazara Colony on Tuesday, police said.

Shahid Amin, 30, a resident of Hazara Colony, who used to deal in old clothes, purchased the SIM from a nearby grocery shop on Monday.

When he got it activated he noticed that the SIM did not carry the balance, although the shopkeeper had told him that it had 75 rupees credit.

Ijaz Anjum, the elder brother of the victim, told Dawn that after activating the SIM he dialed another number through his mobile to check the SIM but he found it empty.

He said after finding no balance in the SIM, Shahid went to Mohammed Amir, the shopkeeper, the next day to complain but the illegal seller of the SIM asked him to come again. When he went to the shop in the afternoon, he was again asked to come in the evening.”

Ijaz Anjum said: “Again in the evening Shahid went to the grocery shop, this time Amir and his brother exchanged hot words and all of a sudden the former took out his pistol and fired at my brother.”

He said a man informed him about the incident.

Ijaz said: “I was taking my younger daughter to hospital when a resident of the area informed me that my brother Shahid had been shot and injured and is lying outside the grocery shop. When I reached there I found my brother lying in a pool of blood and was alive.”

He further said: “Though a large number of people were present at crime scene but none of them shifted my injured brother to hospital nor did they try to stop the murderer from doing the heinous act.”

When asked had anybody tried to settle the issue between the two, he denied saying “They did not help me in hiring a taxi for shifting my injured brother to hospital, let alone settling the issue. Finally, I removed my brother to the District Headquarters Hospital in a rickshaw which also stuck in traffic at Fawwara chowk.”

He said some of his relatives, accompanying him on their motorbikes, helped in clearing the traffic for the rickshaw. But before reaching the hospital his brother had died, he said.

Ijaz Anjum revealed that as the news of his brother’s death broke out, the alleged killer escaped along with his family after locking his house from outside.

ASI Shabbir Hussain, the investigating officer in the case confirmed that Shahid was shot dead by the shopkeeper Mohammad Amir after he went to his shop to protest against the selling of empty (used) SIM to him.