KARACHI, Oct 4: In a second such incident in the metropolis within a few weeks, a university point bus carrying about 65 male and female students was held up by armed robbers, who deprived many of the students of their money and belongings at gunpoint while holding the driver hostage in the Nazimabad area on Friday, officials said.

This time, the point bus of the NED University of Engineering and Technology was targeted.

In the first such incident that took place on Sept 2 at Banaras bridge in Orangi, a Karachi University point carrying about 50 students was targeted by a gang of about a dozen criminals who robbed the students of their belongings in a similar manner.

Officials said that the NED point bus coming from Baldia stopped for a while at Bara Maidan near Nadirya stop to pick three waiting students. Three persons standing close to the students also boarded the bus with them and pulled out their weapons, they said.

One of the armed men held the driver hostage while his companions started depriving male and female students of their cash, mobile phones and other belongings, the officials said, adding that after robbing some 24 students of their belongings, the armed men left the bus when it reached the nearby Nazimabad underpass.

NED Registrar Javed Aziz told Dawn on Friday evening that 65 students were travelling in the bus when robbers struck it. “They snatched only mobile phones from 24 students within three minutes and left the bus,” he said.

He said the university administration would decide about compensating the victims on Monday.

Soon after the incident, the NED students travelling in the bus staged a protest raising slogans against the police and demanding security to people’s life and property, at the crime scene, the Nazimabad traffic intersection. A police team rushed to the spot and tried to pacify them but the students ended their protest after getting an FIR of the incident registered on the complaint of driver Dilawar.

“Initial investigation suggests that there are some similarities in the two robbery incidents involving the Karachi University and NED University buses,” said Karachi Central SSP Amir Farooqi.

He said the suspects had been identified and hoped that they would be arrested soon.

In the Sept 2 incident, described by police and KU officials as a rare incident of its kind, nearly half a dozen armed robbers boarded a KU point bus carrying about 50 students near Banaras bridge in Orangi and deprived many students of their cash and belongings at gunpoint.

The bus was coming from Qasba and had slowed down to pick some waiting students when the armed men managed to board it. Besides mobile phones and valuables, the robbers took away CNICs, KU cards, USBs, books and even academic documents of some students, the victims said.

The victims staged a protest by forming a human chain near Abdullah College, located on the main Manghopir Road, blocking movement of vehicular traffic from 8.15am to 9.30am.

Since many of the victims were deprived of the fee they were keeping for the current semester, the KU administration decided to waive off their fees.

“The university administration is shocked over the incident. We have never heard of such an incident before,” said a KU official.

While there was a suggestion to reroute certain point buses in consultation with the students concerned in order to avoid dangerous localities, the KU is considering induction of vehicles with doors, which could be locked while passing through risky areas, an official was quoted as saying.

Pirabad SHO Abdul Moid insisting that the suspects had been identified told Dawn on Friday that no arrest had been made in the KU bus robbery incident as yet. “The police are conducting raids for their arrest,” he said.