The mob that killed 38-year-old Mohammad Rafi Vora at 11.45 pm on Tuesday night near his Kismat Colony residence did not spring to action suddenly. In fact, the situation in the curfew-bound Ajwa Road area had been tense even four hours before the incident.

However, the police reportedly did not respond to frantic calls from residents of minority community societies here, and arrived only after Rafi was attacked with swords and his Tata Sierra car (GJ-6AA 8285) set on fire with him inside.

‘‘He was coming towards the colony and the mob was already on the street. He honked and accelerated to get past the mob, when the car hit the divider and overturned. The mob then turned on him and set the car on fire,’’ said Rafi’s friend Salim Vora, a Vora Colony resident.

The mob did not give Rafi a chance to come out of his car and attacked him with swords. ‘‘He was killed first and then set on fire along with the car,’’ is what his post-mortem report states.

His younger brother Mohammad Haji Vora says, ‘‘My brother was into the business of leasing out oil tankers. On Tuesday night he was coming back from Gujarat Refinery. We had called him when he was at Dhumal Chowkdi and warned him that the situation was tense. He was the pride of our family and had donated money for the construction of the Ektanagar police chowki.’’

‘‘Retired police inspector B I Pathan, a resident of Kismat Colony, had called the police when the mob started gathering. Instead, he was asked to call up Pakistan,’’ he added.

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