Street criminals claim 19 lives in Karachi in ongoing year

KARACHI: The ongoing year, like the previous 2024, is turning out to be fatal for the residents of the port city in terms of rampant street crime incidents which have resulted in the death of as many as 19 people since January in the provincial capital.

Five people have been gunned down in the city in the last five days in the city.

A security guard identified as Mirza Sajid Baig, as confirmed by the police, was shot and killed by unknown individuals in street criminals in the PECHS area and the body has been shifted to the JPMC.

On Wednesday, two people lost their lives after being gunned down by dacoits in Soharb Goth and Quaidabad, whereas before that another Karachiite was killed by street criminals on March 4 near the Quaidabad Flyover.

35-year-old Babar, a distributor for a well-known beverage company and a father of two children, was killed while resisting a mugging bid at his shop near the Quidabad Murghi Khana Bridge within the Shah Latif Town police jurisdiction, The News reported on Thursday.

Some citizens managed to catch one of the robbers and subjected him to severe beating before handing him over to the police. The police took the injured robber to Jinnah Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.

According to SHO Raja Abbas, the deceased robber was in possession of a 9mm pistol. His identity has not yet been confirmed. The robber’s body was moved to the morgue for identification.

The number of lives lost in street crime incidents during the first four days of Ramadan include 56-year-old Khan Muhammad, a grocery store owner, in Sachal and a citizen named Imran in Shah Latif Town, District Malir.

Meanwhile, a shopkeeper was killed on March 2 in Scheme 33.

Fatal street crimes are not a new phenomenon for Karachiites who witnessed more than 72,000 street crime incidents in the past year affecting as many as 1,503 people including women and children.

Meanwhile, 106 people including an army officer, a retired commando, police officials, engineers, security guards and women were killed by street criminals whereas another 300 were wounded.