Police claim busting two street crime gangs

Street crime continues unabated with a number of citizens looted, vehicles stolen

RAWALPINDI: Rawalpindi police Saturday claimed to have arrested members of two gangs allegedly involved in street crimes and armed robberies even as robbers had a field day in the garrison city.

In a press conference, SSP Operations Irfan Tariq revealed that Naseerabad police had arrested five men of the Boxer Gang while eight men of the Shani Gang had also been arrested.

The SSP said that police had also recovered five 30 bore pistols, 46 live bullets, four motorcycles, Rs100,000 in cash, and 16 cell phones worth Rs500,000. The police said that as many as 24 criminal cases had been registered against them at different police stations of the city.

However, even as police announced the arrest of the 13 men, street crime continued unabated. According to available information, unidentified armed criminals on Saturday deprived five people of their valuables.

Muhammad Babar, a resident of Wilayat Homes, was heading towards his home within the remits of Airport Police Station, when two unidentified dacoits riding on motorcycle intercepted him at Chaklala Scheme-III and snatched his mobile phone and his purse which had around Rs12,000 in cash.

Similarly, Col Navid Arshad Khokhar told Morgah police that he was returning to his car along with his family after withdrawing cash from an ATM in DHA-1 when two armed men held the entire family at gunpoint and snatched the Rs25,000 he had withdrawn as well gold jewellery.

Abdul Rehman told police that two armed men had deprived him of cash at Banni. Meanwhile, Muhammad Ibrar and Imran said they had been targeted by six armed dacoits in two separate incidents near Racecourse who snatched mobile cards, phones and cash from them.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2017.