Police nab ‘robbers involved in bank heist’

KARACHI:

The Rizvia Police claimed on Saturday to have arrested three robbers involved the first bank heist reported in Karachi this year and seized two pistols, six mobile phones and cash worth Rs160,000 from them.

The suspects are accused of robbing Rs1.35 million from a private bank in North Karachi on March 12, 2021.

The CCTV footage of the incident showed four robbers, carrying pistols and repeaters, barging into the bank and holding people hostage at gunpoint.

When a security guard showed resistance, they hit him on the head with the grip of a pistol and fired gunshots into the air.

The robbers then looted money from a cash counter in the bank and fled.

Eyewitnesses later told the police the motorcycle on which two of the four robbers were fleeing broke down near the bank. However, when citizens tried to catch them, they fired guns into the air, snatched a motorcycle from a passerby and fled, according to the eyewitness.

According to the police, the arrested suspects were identified as Junaid, Zeeshan and Salman.

Central SSP Malik Murtaza said the suspects had embarked on a Pakistan tour right after committing the robbery.

"They spent the robbed money lavishly during the tour and were arrested on their return to Karachi," the SSP added.

According to SSP Murtaza, the suspects confessed during interrogation to looting Rs700,000 during different robberies and revealed that the fourth member of the gang, Abdul Sattar, had taken a major chunk from the robbed money.

Efforts for Sattar's arrest are under way, the SSP said, adding that of the arrested suspects, Salman had been declared a wanted criminal over his involvement in 10 incidents of target killing and was part of an extremist group.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th, 2021.