Bank robbery: Second heist in four days

Robbers snatched at least Rs4.4 million, guns from security guards; cops clueless.


Our Correspondent April 20, 2014
Robbers snatched at least Rs4.4 million, guns from security guards; cops clueless. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD:


Bank robbers struck the capital’s rural areas for the second time in a week as a bank branch was looted of over Rs4 million over the weekend.


According to a police spokesperson, five armed men robbed a branch of a private bank in the Soan area, on the eastern suburbs of Islamabad, on Friday.

“The robbers overpowered two private security guards at the bank and went inside,” said a police officer. “They looted at least Rs4.4 million from the bank.”

The bank falls in the Sihala Police Station area, where has registered a case against the unidentified robbers. On Saturday evening, policemen at the station said they had no new information to share except that they had no leads.

A police official said banks in the city’s urban areas are safer because of police patrolling and private security, but branches in rural areas are relatively unguarded as they are further removed from police stations and patrolling routes.

The robbery towards Islamabad’s south took place just days after a bank robbery on the western periphery of the capital resulted in the tragic death of a Punjab police constable. On Tuesday, armed robbers struck at a private bank in Tarnol area and took away with Rs1 million.

When Constable Abrarul Haq, who was withdrawing cash from the bank’s ATM machine, tried to intervene, he was shot by the robbers, who then fled the scene, reportedly on an unregistered motorcycle, with no police to chase them.

The police did not go after the robbers who looted the Soan bank branch on Friday, either. They could also not confirm if the robbers got away on motorcycles or a car.

A police spokesperson said the investigations were under way. He also said the robbers snatched two firearms from the bank’s security guards.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 20th, 2014.

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