A mob beat up and burnt two fleeing robbers, leaving one of them dead on Saturday, while three fleeing robbers were treated in the same way on Wednesday, police officials said.
The men – apparently in their 20s – robbed a passenger bus near the Remedial Hospital, Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Khalid Rafiq said, who was in plainclothes and on patrol with two other policemen when he heard the bus passengers screaming.
The ASI said the fleeing men surrendered and handed their guns over to the police, but a crowd began to beat them. He said the police tried to intervene but they were beaten up as well, and retreated to call for backup. A police contingent arrived at the scene in about five minutes and tried to stop the mob, who threw petrol on the robbers and burnt them. “We assured them that justice will be done but they wanted to kill us too,” Rafiq said. He said the policemen’s own clothes were burnt trying to save the men.
Some citizens filmed the incident.
The men were taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and were referred to the burns ward at Civil Hospital in Karachi. One of them, identified as Danish, died and the other, Imran, is under treatment. The injured men, from Orangi Town, received 50 percent burns.
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