Inter-district gang busted

Group was involved in a number of robberies, sexual assaults

OKARA:

During a major police operation across multiple districts of the province, members of a gang allegedly involved in robberies were arrested on Saturday.

As per officials, the arrested robbers also raped women during robberies. Weapons and stolen goods were also seized from the accused.

Sahiwal RPO Tariq Abbas Qureshi said that the dangerous gang had been active in Sahiwal region for a long time and its members used to rape women during the robberies. “The gang had robbed several houses in Ada Salehwal area of Depalpur tehsil of Okara during the same night two months ago. During the robberies, four robbers also raped a woman in a house.”

Prime Minister Imran Khan, Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar and the Punjab IG also took notice and gave the task to the region police to arrest the accused. Okara police had started investigations in this regard.

A robber of the same gang, Akram, was killed in a police encounter last month.

The police had formed seven teams to conduct a thorough investigation to nab the gang. The teams were reportedly working continuously to bust the gang of robbers. Police also seized a large number of weapons and stolen goods from their possession. The RPO stated that the arrested robbers included Gulzar Aman Farooq, Shehriyar Choha Iqbal and Haider, who had confessed to committing the crimes, including the incident in Ada Salehwal. “Police are also conducting raids to nab other members of the gang who had links with them,” he said, commending the performance of DPO Faisal Shehzad and his team.

The RPO further said that his team would continue its efforts to arrest all the suspects. The complainants, Khalid and Mohammad Saleem, identified him as the accused in their case. The robber was identified as Mohammad Akram alias Ikram, son of Nazir alias Aslam Sheikh, a resident of Nankana Sahib.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2020.