KARACHI: The director of a private engineering institution and a senior academic was killed by armed robbers when he attempted to resist their robbery bid on Stadium Road on Friday, police said.

SSP East Sajid Amir Sadozai said that Prof Dr Zahir Ali Syed, 70, was heading home in his car from the Usman Institute of Technology (UIT) in Gulshan-i-Iqbal.

He said he dropped his driver near Khatoon-i-Pakistan Girls Collage on Stadium Road and went a short distance when two armed men riding a motorcycle intercepted his vehicle signalling him to stop.

The SSP said his driver was witnessing the scene and he tried to head towards the car suspecting something was not right. While the armed men were looking towards the driver, the professor accelerated the car in order to escape, but the robbers fired at him and rode away.

A bullet hit the professor and the vehicle went out of his control. He was immediately taken towards the nearby Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), where he died of excessive bleeding. He suffered a single bullet wound in the armpit and the bullet got stuck in the body.

The SSP said that it appeared to be a robbery-related murder and not an incident of targeted killing.

No casualty reported in a fire that broke out in the media cell of Bilawal House

He said the victim was the director of the UIT.

Meanwhile, the students’ wing of the Pak Sarzameen Party strongly condemned the killing and said that the death of a renowned academic like Dr Zahir Ali Syed in a “car snatching attempt” was a big loss to the country and the nation.

Engineer Syed Usman of the Pak Sarzameen Students Federation urged the chief justice of Pakistan to take notice of the killing and order arrest of the killers forthwith.

Robbers shoot four upon resistance in city

A couple was among four people who were shot at and wounded by armed robbers when they offered resistance in separate incidents on Friday, according to police.

Yunus Subhan, 38, and his wife, Anum, 34, were shot when they put up resistance to a robbery bid in Orangi Town No 8, said Mominabad police.

They were shifted to the AKUH for treatment.

In Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Shakeel Arif, 24, was shot by armed dacoit near the Nipa flyover, the Aziz Bhatti police said.

The wounded man was shifted to the JPMC for treatment.

In another incident, Shaharyar Ibrahim, 24, was shot at and wounded when he resisted a robbery near Murtaza Chowrangi in Korangi, said the Awami Colony police.

The injured was shifted to the JPMC.

No one was arrested in all the three incidents.

Fire at PPP office near Bilawal House

A fire broke out in the media cell of Bilawal House in Clifton on Friday, gutting office furniture but causing no casualty, according to officials.

Bilawal House’s media cell is not located at the residence of former president Asif Zardari and PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, but in another house in the same vicinity. Surendar Valasai, the in-charge of the PPP’s media cell, said that the blaze erupted in the building “accidentally”. He said the staff working there had left the premises immediately.

He said that the fire broke out in the garbage spread nearby and the building caught fire.

A fire brigade official said that at least 10 to 12 fire tenders controlled the blaze after hectic efforts. He said that the fire was not a huge one but owing to the importance of the site of the blaze, they had sent several fire tenders to take part in firefighting.

Clifton SHO Pir Shabbir Haider said the fire did not cause any damage to the building infrastructure, as only wooden stuff was destroyed.

He added that the police were waiting for the report of the fire brigade about the exact cause of the fire.

A traffic police spokesperson said that the road from Bilawal House towards Ali Baba was closed for vehicular traffic in the aftermath of the fire.

Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Shaikh, who visited the spot, said that an electric short-circuit triggered the fire. He added that it would be investigated as to why the fire broke out.

Suspect beaten by mob dies

A suspected robber, who was beaten up by a mob, died during treatment at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre on Friday, according to an Edhi Foundation spokesperson.

An angry mob got hold of two suspects during a robbery at Jauhar Chowk in Orangi Town two days ago. They subjected them to severe beating before arrival of the police.

Both the suspects were shifted to the JPMC for treatment in a critical condition where one of them died on Friday.

The deceased was in his early 30s. His identity could not be ascertained immediately. The body was shifted to the Edhi morgue in Sohrab Goth for identification.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2021