Seven shops looted in mobile mall

An organised group of robbers broke into seven shops in Fariya Mobile Mall in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, stealing mobile phones, cash and other valuables early on Monday morning.

According to Gulshan-e-Iqbal SHO Syeda Ghazala, the thieves broke in at around 6am and robbed seven shops in a matter of minutes with the help of a security guard at the mall. The guard could be seen in CCTV footage opening the shutters for the robbers while another guard was asleep.

She stated that the robbers also went to the mall’s surveillance room and switched off the CCTV cameras before they began looting the shops. However, she added, the police had acquired backup data from the cameras, fingerprints and other evidence.

Ghazala claimed that both guards had been taken into police custody.

The affected shopkeepers disclosed that they had sustained losses of at least Rs10 million as a whole. The police have sought details of the stolen mobile phones so that a case can be registered.

East SSP Sajid Sadozai later removed Ghazala from her post as Gulshan-e-Iqbal SHO due to rising crime in the jurisdiction and appointed Safdar Mashwani to the post instead.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 7^th, 2020.