Three-day ultimatum for arrest of furniture dealer's killers

With a three-day ultimatum to government for arresting the murderers of a furniture dealer, Saleem Anwar, the chairman of Karachi Furniture Dealers Group (KFDG), Muhammad Atiq, warned of taking to streets in protest and call for shutter-down strike.
"Traders of Manzoor Colony face plunders every day. Police, for sure, backs the culprits who abduct traders for ransom and carry out other criminal activities during daytime there," he said at a press conference at Karachi Press Club on Wednesday.
He slammed the government and police department for failure to protect the citizens from street crimes. He also criticised the bomb disposal squad for not reaching the spot on time to rescue the trader who remained drenched in blood for about two hours. "Our colleague breathed his last in pain, who was groaning for help while police was there but did not come close to him and also kept public away from him," he said.
Police reached there 45 minutes after being informed about the tragic incident and the bomb disposal personnel arrived at the scene after two hours of the incident. Till then Saleem had succumbed to injuries, Atiq said. The indignant traders said that a city of over 1.6 million inhabitants has only one bomb disposal person who at the hour of need unfortunately did not have a vehicle to reach the spot, and had to hire a taxi, which bogged down in traffic chaos.
He said that 80 percent of police personnel are serving VIPs, as only one police official is assigned to protect 950 citizens, while the entire department does not have proper equipment to cope with challenges like new tactics of culprits.
The KFDG Chairman demanded of the government to probe the incident and arrest the culprits. He said that it should also suspend the officials of Baloch Colony Police Station who did not respond timely and let the culprits escape safely.
He said that traders of 32 furniture markets would hold demonstration rallies in front of Chief Minister house and would also observe shutter-down strike if the government did not show seriousness for arrest of the killers.