Software engineer among six suspected robbers arrested

KARACHI:

Bilal Colony and Sir Syed Police in a joint operation arrested six suspected robbers including a graduate software engineer who is expert in cracking mobile phone passwords, IMEI numbers and making PTA blocked sets workable.

The arrested suspects were involved in dozens of cases of snatching mobile phones and cash within the limits of various police stations of district Central, police claimed.

At least six 30-bore pistols and 15 snatched mobile phones, laptops, computers and cash were recovered from the suspects, police said. Software engineer Ata Ullah told the police that he unlocks blocked sets by overriding the IMEI numbers. Moreover, he confessed to making smuggled handsets PTA approved. The university graduate instead of using his software skills for earning a decent livelihood was working as a ‘VIP doctor’ for gangs of snatchers bringing blocked and locked handsets to him.

Also among the suspects were Sattar Jamali and Didar, residents Garhi Yasin. They robbed citizens leaving the bank with cash, while their accomplice Amir drove a rickshaw and conducted recce of targets.

Amir would sit on watch outside bank branches in his rickshaw and call Jamali and Didar on mobile phone whenever he saw a likely target. The suspects had snatched Rs0.7 million from a citizen near Yusuf Plaza in Sachal and Rs1.2 million from another victim in Bilal Colony.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2023.