Police recover stolen vehicles

LAHORE:

Officials from the Anti-Vehicle Lifting Cell have nabbed seven wanted men affiliated with three gangs and seized dozens of vehicles and bikes from them, CCPO Amin Wains said on Saturday.

Wains made the disclosure while speaking to newsmen at a press conference. The CCPO said the 46 vehicles and 78 motorbikes recovered by the officials were believed to be worth over Rs30 million. Wains said those arrested were Zahid Bashir alias Zahidoo, Muhammad Ishaq alias Fauji, Idrees alias Lahori, Aftab, Mumtaz alias Ustad, Haris and Usman. He said the men were affiliated with the Zahidoo, Lahori and Ustad gangs. Wains said all the arrests and confiscation of vehicles had taken over two weeks.

Talking about their modus operandi, the CCPO said the suspects would spot a parked vehicle. He said one of them would trail the owner of the vehicle while his accomplice would flee with the car in question after using a master key or picking its locks. Wains said the men would then sell the vehicles in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).  He said police had revamped the Anti-Vehicle Lifting Cell along the lines of the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA). The CCPO claimed that this was yielding positive results. Wains said police had been looking into parking problems in collaboration with companies operating in the sector in addition to lifting of vehicles. He said vehicle lifting hotspots were being marked and a strategy was being devised to improve picketing standards around the spots.  Responding to a query regarding the killing of three suspected robbers in an allegedly staged encounter in Lakho Dher on Thursday night, the CCPO said police would conduct an inquiry into the matter and take action against those responsible in accordance with its findings. Wains later handed over keys of the seized vehicles back to their owners.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 14^th, 2016.