Public enemies: Barely a week later, another bank robbery

Men dressed in shalwar kameez hold up the bank for five minutes.

KARACHI:

The authorities are on high alert and suspect that a group is behind two robberies carried out within a week of each other.

Their suspicions were raised when unidentified men held up a bank in Malir and fled with a couple of million rupees. If they are correct, then this group was also responsible for the Rs3.3 million stolen from a bank in Gulshan-e-Iqbal on July 29.

In both cases around five men dressed in shalwar kameez and formal attire robbed the banks in a hustle on Friday. In the latest robbery, the men walked into the bank located within the limits of the Saudabad police station, at 9:10 am and held the staff and customers at gunpoint. “One of their companions was waiting outside while the others stole Rs4.6 million from the cash counter,” said SHO Zulfikar Bajwa. They also stole cell phones and removed all evidence of the robbery by breaking CCTV cameras inside.

The SHO claims that the entire operation was over within five minutes and that a special team had been formed to investigate the case. “We are trying to figure out which vehicle they had used and locate a backup record of the CCTV footage,” he said. “The security guards will also be investigated in order to determine if they were involved with the robbers and for a sketch of the suspects.” Bajwa added that it was possible that a staff member was involved in the robbery because the robbers were well acquainted with the inside of the bank. The police have registered a case against unidentified men on behalf of the bank manager Mukhtiar.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 6^th, 2011.