KHAIRPUR: Thieves broke into seven shops in different areas in Khairpur and two shops in Sukkur late last night and made away with thousands of rupees cash and valuables.

In Khairpur, the thieves broke open locks of groceries and provision stores owned by one Noor Ahmed Memon but had to flee before completing the job.

In another incident, the thieves broke open locks of four showrooms in Saida Goth area and took away about Rs600,000 cash from the shop of one Nazeer Ahmed Ujjan and thousands of rupees and documents of motorcycles from the shops of Abdul Latif Shaikh, Abdul Ghani Jamali and Khairpur Autos.

In yet another incident, the gang of thieves, most probably the same, stole an unspecified amount of cash from Sindh Bakers in Khaki Shah bridge area and a large amount of cash and property documents from paint and poultry shops owned by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Khairpur president Syed Sabit Ali Shah in the same area. The thieves broke into electronics shops owned by Yameen Jatoi near Civic Centre chowk but could not steal.

The affected traders lodged complaints with 15 Madadgar but police did not take any action nor arrested any suspect.

They said that when they tried to obtain CCTV footages of the areas, they were told that a number of cameras were either out of order or they did not work during loadshedding when the theft incidents took place, hence no footage of the crime.

They expressed grave concern over the rising incidents of theft and demanded prompt action against the burglars.

SUKKUR: The same night, a gang of thieves broke open locks of two shops in electronic markets in Shaheed Ganj area near Clock Tower roundabout and stole away thousands of rupees and others valuables.

Shopkeepers in the market shut their shops on Sunday morning against the theft and held a protest demonstration in front of Clock Tower roundabout.

The protesters’ leaders said that it was regrettable that the theft took place just a few paces from B-Section police station. Trader felt highly insecure after the brazen theft incident, they said. They said that they would continue the peaceful protest till police arrested the thieves and recovered the stolen money and valuables.

As the protest was in progress, SSP Syed Asad Raza Shah issued directives to ASP city to meet the traders and assure them of complete cooperation by police.

Later, the ASP accompanied by SHO of the B-Section police station reached the Clock Tower roundabout and assured the protesters’ leaders that police would recover the stolen cash and valuable items within 48 hours. On this assurance, the traders ended the protest and dispersed peacefully.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2018