In Uttar Pradesh’s Noida, a man’s routine trip to buy meat on a quiet Thursday afternoon took a shocking turn as he was stabbed to death outside a shop. Shahzad, a 35-year-old Meerut native living in Noida, and an unidentified customer had arrived at the shop owned by Gulzar. As the two awaited service, a seemingly benign argument over a towel spiralled into a deadly confrontation.

As Shahzad asked the unknown man to lend him a towel he wore, the request provoked the accused, leading to a heated exchange. Eyewitnesses describe how, in the midst of rising tempers, the attacker suddenly seized a butcher’s knife lying on the counter, of the Sector 117 meatshop. Without hesitation, he plunged it into Shahzad’s stomach, cutting it open which sent Shahzad staggering from the shop.

Holding his bleeding stomach, Shahzad ran approximately 40 metres to a nearby intersection. His desperate plea for help, as he collapsed onto a culvert, went unanswered. The accused continued his pursuit, stabbing Shahzad several more times until he collapsed, dead. The killer, as though unaffected, returned calmly to the meat shop, picked up his order and walked away.

Responding to frantic calls, police officers soon arrived at the scene, retrieved Shahzad’s body and sent it for an autopsy. With no initial clues on the killer’s identity, three teams were quickly mobilised to scour the area and examine CCTV footage from nearby shops.

Later that night, police received a tip-off about the accused, identified as Amarjeet Mahato, a resident of Bihar. Around dawn today, they traced Mahato to the jungle bordering Sector 117. When police closed in, Mahato fired at the officers with a pistol. In the ensuing exchange of fire, Mahato was shot in the leg, subdued, and taken to a local hospital for treatment. The police also seized the knife used in Shahzad’s murder, as well as Mahato’s pistol and a stash of live cartridges.

According to the police, Shahzad was the father of three children. His wife Salma works as a cook. Shahzad, who had recently lost his job as a driver, was hoping to secure new work when he was killed.

Though the meat shop was equipped with surveillance cameras, the footage captured only glimpses of the attack: Shahzad is seen fleeing the shop after the initial stab wound, followed by Mahato in quick pursuit. The police have confiscated the CCTV footage from surrounding shops as part of their ongoing investigation.

Gulzar, the meat shop’s owner, vanished immediately after the incident.