A suspected robber was on Saturday beaten and burnt to death by an angry mob at the Five Star Roundabout, North Nazimabad, while his accomplice was seriously injured. Two policemen who tried to rescue them were also thrashed by the public. Police said after looting a mini-bus of route W-25, the two robbers were fleeing when they were caught by the public who torched them.
The people responsible for burning the robber alive later said they did not trust the police and the judicial system. Had they handed over the robbers to the police, they would have been granted bail by courts and would have again started looting the citizens, they said.
According to the passengers and eyewitnesses, the two robbers had boarded a mini-bus of route W-25 near the Hyderi Market at around 2 pm. When the bus moved towards the Five Star Roundabout, they took out their pistols and started looting the passengers.
Later, they ordered the driver to stop the bus near the Remedial Hospital, and were fleeing when the passengers raised alarm. The passers-by caught hold of them and started beating them.
Car drivers and motorcyclists stopped their vehicles, joined the mob and started beating the robbers.
The car drivers used jack-rods, while the motorcyclists beat the robbers with helmets. Some persons took out petrol from motorcycles, sprinkled it on the robbers and set them on fire.
In the meantime, patrolling police officials on a motorcycle tried to rescue the robbers. One official, an ASI, was in civvies while the other, a constable, was in uniform. As they tried to rescue the burning robbers, the enraged mob caught hold of the two and started beating them. Mistaking the police official in civvies as being an accomplice of the robbers, they also sprinkled petrol on him and tried to set him alight.
Several police mobiles arrived and resorted to baton charge and got both the robbers who were aflame released from the custody of the enraged mob and extinguished the fire. The policemen were also freed. The four were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital in private vehicles.
Afterwards, the angry mob staged a protest against the police and an anchorperson of a private TV channel. The mob alleged that the police officials were also involved in robberies. Some said as the police were bandit-friendly, they now believe in instant justice as the robbers have made the lives of peaceful Karachiites miserable. Many in the mob said what they had done with the robbers was justice and they had no guilt over it. Some of them said they were inspired by an Indian movie and also from the incident that had recently occurred at the Nishtar Road, Karachi, in which three robbers were burnt alive by the area residents.
The injured bandits were shifted to the Civil Hospital from the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where one of them, Danish, succumbed to his wounds in the Burns Ward while the other, identified as Imran, was in critical condition in the ICU. Both were aged between 25 and 30.
When contacted, Supervisory Police Officer North Nazimabad Abdul Rasheed Khan said the injured police officials, ASI Khalid and Constable Mohammed Altaf, were posted at the SP Office and working in the Nigraan Force.
He added that a TT pistol was recovered from the robbers who were the residents of Qatar Hospital area of Orangi Town. As no complainant arrived at the police station, FIRs were lodged on the behalf of the state, he said.
A senior police officer said on condition of anonymity this was a dangerous trend. He warned that people with enmity could torch their enemies claiming they were robbers. One should control this situation, he said.
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