RIYADH, 31 October 2005 — With Ramadan drawing to a close, pickpockets in Riyadh have changed their tactics.
The racket, in which an African gang is involved, thrives in the congested areas of downtown Batha, where shoppers from South and Southeast Asia gather for Eid purchases.
Explaining the gang’s modus operandi, Bashir Kalabavan from Kerala, said that as he came out of a polyclinic near Bengali market in the Batha area, he found himself in the midst of some Africans who jostled him so that he stumbled over the feet of one of the members of the gang.
“I apologized, but they were not satisfied. They deliberately picked a quarrel and roughed me up. When they left, I discovered that SR3,000 was missing from my pocket,” said Bashir.
He said he now realizes that a member of that gang was watching his movement in the polyclinic where he changed SR500.
In another incident, Ashraf Ponnani, an Indian national, lost SR1,000 on Rail Street, also in the Batha area, during a contrived encounter with a gang again made up of Africans. They had also relieved several other expatriates of their cash. All the victims said they were willing to identify the culprits if they were apprehended by the police.
