Robbers make off with over Rs 310 million!: Country's biggest bank heist at 'Wall Street’

By Faraz Khan

KARACHI: A private security company's guard, who was deputed at a private bank's branch located at the busiest thoroughfare of the metropolis, has carried out the biggest bank robbery in Pakistan on Sunday and escaped with over 310 million rupees in foreign currency. He was aided by five of his yet unidentified accomplices.

The private bank is situated near the Central Police Office on II Chundrigar Road - also called the country's 'Wall Street' - within Mithadar police station limits in Saddar Town.

This is the city's 16th bank robbery this year.

Heavy contingent of law enforcers, including CCPO Waseem Ahmed, South Zone DIG Ghulam Nabi Memon, Saddar Town SP Abdullah Sheikh, CID SSP Fayyaz Khan and SIU chief Raja Umer Khattab, reached the crime scene as soon as the news broke out.

According to the police officials on location, Shahid, the security guard was the mastermind behind the bank robbery. After reaching the bank during his duty hours in the morning, Shahid called five of his associates, who bound the other two on-duty guards, Emran and Zamir.

"They took at least two hours to complete their operation and used gas cutters and other equipment," said CID DSP Israr Awan, adding that out of the nine lockers in the bank, the culprits managed to break into only one, which "contained only euros, dollars and pounds. They also tried the second locker, which contained local currency, but fled when they found some of it was burnt while breaking into the locker."

The police have detained Emran, Zamir and Emran's friend Syed Aqeel Abbas, a dismissed ASI, for questioning.

While talking to Daily Times, the CCPO said according to the bank's staff and insurance personnel, over Rs 310 million in foreign currency have been robbed.

He said the police have obtained CCTV footage and the forensic department has taken fingerprints.

"We are facing many troubles in finding out the culprits' footage due to the poor-quality CCTV cameras installed at the bank. The bank administrations do not install good-quality CCTV cameras, which impedes the law enforcers to effectively carry on with their investigations," he added.

The CCPO also said the police have promised a reward of Rs 250,000 to anyone who provides information about this robbery, adding that two investigation teams, headed by DIG Memon and SSP Khattab respectively, have been constituted to investigate the robbery, while the CCPO himself is heading the case inquiry.

Talking about the security company that employed Shahid, the CCPO said its licence has been cancelled because it had employed Shahid without any proper verification, adding that during the initial course of investigation, Emran confessed that after the robbers left the bank, he found some 40,000 euros and gave them to his friend Aqeel.

Aqeel’s family claims that he had handed over the 40,000 euros to the police after watching the news about the bank robbery on television.

Saddar Town DSP Hamid Ali told Daily Times that the police have confiscated Shahid's NIC and his photograph has been provided to the media.

"We are checking the CCTV footage, but we cannot say anything at this point. It seems that Shahid entered the bank first and cut off all the security cables, after which his companions entered the bank," he added.

"He was deputed at the bank for the last two months and had been plotting for this robbery," the officer said.

The police have started gathering details about other security companies to avoid repetition of a similar incident.

Police sources suspect that the robbers might have links with the Taliban or other militant groups. No case was registered until the filing of this report, while raids were being carried out to arrest the other robbers.

There were some reports that the mastermind of the robbery was from Punjab, but the officer said he spoke Pushto. However, according to his CNIC, he hailed from Faisalabad.

The city police chief denied affiliation of the robbers with Taliban and said that nothing can be said with absolute certainty until the investigations are completed.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...12-2009_pg12_1

Regards
Azhar Hussain Memon