LAHORE -  Dacoits shot dead a bakery cashier near Omar Chowk in Green Town yesterday morning, police said.

The brazen robbery took place in the Green Town police precincts a day after two gunmen thrashed and robbed an old couple in Mughalpura, exposing the police claims of just 20 strikes in a day.

Though the city police have got inducted new patrolling squad equipped with latest arms, heavy bikes and cars to swoop down on criminals, street crimes are still on the rise.

The deceased cashier was identified as Abid Mahmood, 22, from Okara. Workers had just opened the bakery when the robbers got in and held up the guard.

Investigators said the cashier was shot and killed in front of his colleagues.

An eyewitness told the police that two gunmen forced their entry in the shop while another was standing outside. “Pointing his gun, one of the robbers ordered us to put our hands up and sit down,” a young worker told The Nation.

While requesting anonymity, he said: “The second outlaw hit the cashier in the head with his gun. A few seconds later, he shot the cashier in the head, killing him on the spot.”

There was no patrolling party around when the armed robbery took place in the busy locality.

Police reached the crime scene when the robbers had escaped, only to shift the body for autopsy.

A murder-cum-robbery case was registered on the complaint of a relative of the dead. Investigators, in order to ascertain the identity of the bandits, were going through the CCTV footage taken from the cameras installed inside the bakery till late yesterday night.