HYDERABAD, Feb 3 On the call of the Hyderabad Sarafa and Jewellers Group, goldsmiths throughout Hyderabad district observed a shutter down on Tuesday to protest the increasing incidents of robberies.

The goldsmiths vowed to continue their strike for an indefinite period till the recovery of looted goods and the arrest of the accused.

Speaking at a news conference, the president of the group, Mohammad Shafique Shaikh, and additional general secretary Abdul Jabbar Chundrigar said that after every robbery, they had fully cooperated with the police and refrained from staging protest demonstrations. However, they said, their patience had been exhausted as they were feeling insecure and there was great resentment among the goldsmiths' fraternity.

They recalled that on March 6, 2008, prize bonds worth Rs2 million were looted from the shop of Haji Abdul Razzaq on Bhai Khan ji Charhi in broad daylight. They said that the burglars broke into Shahab Jewellers in the Phulelli area on Oct 4, 2008, and decamped with gold and silver ornaments and Rs5 million in cash.

They said that on Dec 20, 2008, burglars again struck at Al-Mustafa Jewellers, Latifabad-11, and looted gold and silver ornaments and over Rs4 million. The owner of the shop, Ikram Illahi, died due to shock, they said.

Strangely enough, they said the dacoits in police uniforms, who had come in a police mobile, barged into the house of Haji Yousuf, proprietor of Data Jewellers in Mir Fazal Town, on Jan 13, held the inmates hostages and decamped with ornaments and cash valued at Rs600,000.

The burglary in the Golden Jewellers in Latifabad-8, in which bandits took away a safe weighing 800kg had proved to be the last straw, the jewellers leaders said, adding that ornament and cash of more than Rs600,000 were lying in the safe.

They said that FIRs of all these incidents were registered and personal meetings were also held with the senior police officers but the police had totally failed to recover the stolen jewellery and cash amounting to millions of rupees.

“We have, therefore, decided to go on an indefinite strike in protest against the failure of the police to nab the dacoits,” they said.

They said that they had decided to take other trade organisations, including the Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, into confidence to widen the scope of their protest. They said that they had decided to hold a provincial level meeting in Hyderabad to evolve a future strategy.

They urged the Sindh government to provide protection to the jewellers and called on the district administration and the police to apprehend the accused and recover the looted property.