Pakistan: Journalist robbed nine times before being shot dead, says brother

Karachi [Pakistan], February 21 : Pakistani journalist Athar Mateen was shot dead on Friday in an armed attack on his car in Karachi's North Nazimabad area was robbed nearly nine times before being killed, said his brother Tariq Mateen.
While speaking on the rising crimes in Karachi on ARY News transmission, Athar's brother said that people in Karachi fear that their belongings will be looted and thus they have to hide their cash and phones.
He criticized the Pakistani government saying, "The government functionaries only had to issue a condemnation after every such incident without taking concrete steps to deal with it," he said.
Furthermore, while grieving he said that the police station was less than a kilometre away from where his brother was shot. He accused the police of backing these social elements.
"However, no one came from the station even after the robbers took their time to run away while continuously firing," Tariq Mateen said. Sharing personal experience, he said that not only Athar but they were five brothers and each of them have been robbed multiple times on Karachi streets.
"The robbers are roaming freely and it is Karachiites who need to hide their mobile phones and cash while going out over fear of getting robbed," he said and added, "Our police and government has failed to deal with the situation".
According to the police, the private TV channel's senior producer Athar Mateen was assassinated at the main thoroughfare in North Nazimabad while he was on his way back home after dropping his children to school.
The police said that Mateen, who was driving a car, tried to foil a robbery bid when he saw armed motorcyclists robbing another citizen, by shoving his car into their motorcycle.
At this, one of the motorcyclists, who fell on the ground, opened fire at Mateen's car. The assailant fired three shots, but Mateen sustained only one bullet injury which killed him on the spot, the police said.