Banks need the necessary protection and punishment needs to be meted out to the few culprits who are caught
KARACHI: Bank robberies in Karachi have been on the rise for some years now. It is either the increasing fearlessness of robbers, the increasing lax attitude of the authorities, or more likely, a potent combination of the two that is the reason, as well as the catalyst behind this phenomenon. Various banks, along with hiring security guards for protection, rely on CCTV cameras to help identify potential culprits. However, such measures have proved to be of limited success as robbers have been able to successfully carry out their plans and go off with the looted money, and the camera footage too, in some instances, hours before the police even arrive on the crime scene.
On September 12, a bunch of robbers got away with around Rs400,000 from a local bank located on Shaheed-e-Millat Road. They held the staff at gunpoint, injuring the private security guards and escaped with the money, all in a matter of minutes. On September 27, armed robbers barged into a bank in the Saddar area and again held not only the employees, but the security guards hostage at gunpoint and were off with Rs6.2 million before the arrival of the police. And now, on October 13, robbers again attempted to rob a bank in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, but their plans were fortunately thwarted by the security guards, who forced them to run off. Yet again, the police were nowhere in sight until after the robbers had fled the scene. It would be right to say that breaching the security system and escaping without so much as a scratch has become an easy feat for criminals to pull off.
The urgent need is not only to come up with an improved and viable security plan, but also to immediately implement it has become undeniable and very obvious. Banks need the necessary protection and punishment needs to be meted out to the few culprits who are caught. Proper arrests and legal proceedings need to be carried out in order to control this activity, which is slowly but surely becoming unmanageable.
Nashra Fatima
Published in The Express Tribune, October 16th, 2014.
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