Pakistani actor robbed on gunpoint in Karachi

Karachi: Close on the heels of the murder of noted Sufi singer Amjad Sabri, a well-known Pakistani actor was robbed on gunpoint in broad daylight in Karachi on Thursday, highlighting the poor law and order situation in the country's financial hub.

Actor, host and musician Nadeem Jafri and his friends were sitting in an SUV near his residence when two men on a motorcycle approached them and deprived them of their expensive mobile phones, cash and cheques.

According to Jafri who is a popular figure for hosting children's shows on different channels there was an exchange of fire when the armed robbers were leaving after the friend used his firearm and retaliated.

"For a moment I thought they had come for me and when the firing took place I didn't know what to do. I am just grateful to God and relieved that we are safe and sound now," Jafri said.

"I demand security from the Sindh government. It was a very scary experience," he added.

"It appears to be a street crime and we investigating the incident," SP Fahad Ahmed said. But he denied any firing took place.

Jafri's encounter with criminals comes in the midst of an ongoing war of words between the Sindh government and scores of actors, singers and producers who earlier this week demanded that the Sindh government provide them security.

Led by singer Fakhr-e-Alam the artists submitted an application to the police for security after famous qawwal Sabri was gunned down last week.

Two days before the targeted killing of Sabri, the son of the chief justice of Sindh High Court was also kidnapped in broad daylight from outside a shopping centre in upmarket Clifton area and is yet to be found.