KARACHI: Witnesses’ account casts doubts over mob attack: Suspects’ sketches prepared
KARACHI, May 18: Initial investigations into a suspected dacoit’s lynching in North Nazimabad on Saturday have raised doubts about the incident and the police, who have prepared sketches of the two suspects believed to be instrumental in its ‘planning and execution’, are looking for ways to establish whether the incident was a spontaneous reaction of a mob or it was a planned move.
Two ‘robbers’ were severely beaten up and set on fire at Five-Star Chowrangi of North Nazimabad by a charged crowd on Saturday. One of the alleged robbers died after reaching the Civil Hospital Karachi while the other with severe wounds was admitted for treatment at the CHK. The investigators, however, have yet to record the statement of the injured ‘robber’ as doctors have not so far allowed police to question him, describing his condition as serious.
“We are waiting for the doctors’ approval as they don’t want him (the injured man) to talk in such condition,” said Naveed Khawaja, SP of North Nazimabad Town.
“His statement would be crucial in defining the way of investigations,” he said, and confirmed that sketches of the two young men were prepared by the area police with the help of eyewitnesses’ account. He said both the suspects were neither travelling in the minibus that was looted by the alleged robber nor they were among those at the bus stop.
“Through the eyewitnesses’ accounts we have come to know that the two guys were following the bus on a motorbike and started shouting once the robbers got off the bus after snatching valuables from the passengers. They (motorcyclists) may have been aware of these robbers and planned this event. We are looking for those two guys as their arrests would further clear the situation,” added SP Khawaja.
Three FIRs
Shahrah-i-Noor Jehan police, meanwhile, registered three different cases regarding the incident, two of them against the alleged robbers. The FIRs (172 and 173/2008) had been registered against the ‘robbers’ under Section 13-D of the Arms Ordinance for possessing illegal arms and Sections 393 and 394 of the Pakistan Penal Code for committing an armed robbery.
“The third case (FIR No 174/2008) had been registered against unknown persons under Sections 186, 353, 316 and 322 of the PPC for taking the law into their own hands, manhandling of policemen and brutal assault of the alleged robbers, which led to one’s death,” said an official at the police station.
The episode was a grim reminder of a similar incident that occurred in Eidgah earlier this week when three robbers were burnt to death by the area people on the main Nishtar Road after they were caught red-handed. As the area police avoided commenting on the belongings of the two ‘robbers’ recovered from Five-Star Chowrangi, sources close to the department and witnesses said an official identity card of the Sindh police was among several objects taken into custody by the investigators.
“A TT pistol was handed over by area people to our constable, and mobile phones, which are not clear whether they belonged to the robbers or they were snatched before the incident,” said an official.
He said police had approached several eyewitnesses but only a few of them came up with a positive response and recorded their statements at Shahrah-i-Noor Jehan police station.
“It’s too early to reach the conclusion,” said the official. “But we suspect that the case is not as simple as it was at Eidgah. The area where the incident occurred is surrounded by the population of higher middle class and literate people, who we believe can’t go to such an extreme. The two guys we doubt are the main reasons behind the incident. Furthermore, it has yet to be established that it was their spontaneous reaction or a planned move,” he said.
The area police may find a way out to resolve the mystery but the authorities are convinced that the two incidents of the same nature in different localities of the city reflect the rising frustration among citizens who no longer trust in the law-enforcement agencies. “Frustration is there in society and no one can deny that,” Dr Shoaib Suddle, the Sindh police chief, told reporters after addressing members of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry the other day. “Most importantly, people have become convinced that the system, which is supposed to provide justice to them, has never responded to their complaints,” he remarked.