Rs9.7m robbed from 2 banks within the hour

KARACHI: Three unidentified armed men entered a private bank in North Nazimabad at 12:22 pm on Monday, held the staff hostage at gunpoint and robbed the bank of Rs1.7 million. The entire operation took three minutes, the employees said, adding that the robbers seemed to know each part of the bank extremely well.

Naik Mohammad, a guard at the bank, said that the men beat him up and took away his weapons.

Taimuria SHO Chaudhry Irshad corroborated the witness accounts, saying that the robbers appeared to be professionals who were thoroughly prepared. “We have collected CCTV footage and have also started searching for the culprits,” said Irshad, after the police lodged an FIR on the complaint of the bank’s manager, Shabbir.

This incident was followed by another robbery that took place just outside a private bank in Muhammad Ali Society within the hour. Asim, the manager of a private cellular phone company, had just reached the Dohrajee branch of a private bank with his accountant Adnan, cashier Muhammad Ali and driver Ghulam Rasool to deposit money when two men wearing helmets drove by on a motorcycle and snatched from Asim the bag, which contained Rs8 million belonging to the company.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2010.