KARACHI – Unidentified robbers struck at the Shershah scrap market on Wednesday, a day after traders observed a shutter-down strike to protest being harassed by extortionists.
Four men on motorcycles arrived at the market and within minutes looted four shops and more than a dozen customers.
Most of the shops at the market were closed at the time as traders were still uncertain about reopening their businesses following Tuesday’s strike.
However, almost all traders of the market arrived at the market when they learned about the robbery. Enraged by police inefficiency, they staged a demonstration and surrounded a police post, where some of them hurled stones. Later, the Karachi capital city police officer, the deputy inspector general West and the Liaquatabad SP reached the market and assured the traders that they would be provided foolproof security.
Following the police high-ups’ assurances, the traders ended their protest and opened their shops.
It is pertinent to mention that 13 people were killed and many injured in a brutal attack, allegedly by extortionists, at the Shershah scrap market in October last year.
“There were four robbers, whose faces were covered. They entered the market on their motorcycles at around 10:35am,” said one of the traders whose shops were robbed.
“Only four shops were open at that time and some customers, who had arrived from interior Sindh in the morning, were buying some goods,” he added.
He said that the four men roamed inside the market on their motorcycles looking for more open shops but couldn’t find any.
The president of the Shershah Scrap Market Association, Malik Zahid told Pakistan Today that the police have failed to provide traders with adequate security.
“The interior minister visited the market after the carnage last year and assured the traders that they would be provided foolproof security and the provincial government also took some bold steps to implement the orders of the federal government, but later everything went back to the way it was before,” he said.
Zahid said that the provincial government set up police posts, deployed Rangers at the entrance of the market and police vans also roamed inside the market.
“But after some time, the police and Rangers were removed from the market and policemen started slipping away from the posts,” he said, adding that robberies at the market have started again and there is no security now.
