JEDDAH, 20 August 2007 — Police have arrested a three-man gang of violent robbers, who stabbed a Pakistani gold businessman to death in Qasim and attempted to flee the Kingdom.
The three men, who are of an unnamed Asian nationality, targeted the jeweler in a premeditated and planned robbery. The businessman, a popular Pakistani national from Qasim, was known in the Kingdom’s gold business in the northern region.
According to police, the three men monitored the businessman’s movements for some time and attacked him two weeks ago when he was carrying a large amount of gold for delivery to a jeweler. Two of the men held the man down while the third stabbed him to death.
In addition to stealing all the gold in the man’s possession, the thieves also took his ID documents to hamper police investigations and give them time to leave the Kingdom.
According to a police spokesman, “Police and forensic experts arrived at the location to gather evidence. We found in the man’s pocket a telephone number in Pakistan. When we contacted the number we managed to find out who the man was.”
The spokesman added that investigations led to identifying all of the man’s acquaintances.
“A week later we arrested two of the killers in Riyadh. The two men revealed the identity of their third accomplice, who had escaped to Jeddah and was hiding in a relative’s home,” said the spokesman.
Qasim police then contacted Jeddah police to arrest the man. “The relatives in Jeddah told police that he had surrendered himself to the authorities for deportation. Police went to the deportation section at Jeddah’s Passport Department and arrested the man only a few hours before he was to take a flight to Pakistan last Friday,” said the spokesman. All three of the men are currently awaiting trial.
Meanwhile, police in Jeddah arrested a man in connection with the death of two police officers who were manning a checkpoint, the daily Al-Riyadh reported yesterday. The suspect is believed to be the man who ran a checkpoint, which caused a police chase to ensue. During the chase, the two officers died in a head-on collision with a truck.
