Mother of all thefts: Thieves clean workshop, take jewellery worth Rs120m
Goods stolen include diamonds, gems, gold and cash; workshop is located on the first floor of the owner’s residence.
RAWALPINDI:
Unidentified men broke into the workshop of a goldsmith at Sarafa Bazaar (gold market) and took away diamonds, gold and cash worth Rs120 million on Friday night.
Anwarul Haq, 60, was shocked when he found diamonds, gems, gold and cash missing from his shop when his employees opened it at about 12pm on Saturday.
The workshop is located on the first floor of Haq’s residence in New Sarafa Bazaar, and the burglars broke the rear door of the store at Friday night and took away the valuables, the victim told police and media.
The value of the lost items is not less than Rs120 million and most of the items were given by investors, he said.
His son, Amir Ahmed, told media, “We have been conducting the trade of diamonds and jewels throughout the country for a long time.”
He added that they have been in the business for the last three generations and have never seen a theft on such a large scale; he urged the police to nab the thieves and recover the goods.
Area Superintendent of Police Malik Matloob Hussain said the possibility of insiders being involved in the burglary could not be ruled out and they had taken the fingerprints from the briefcase and from other items in the room.
On the other hand, the owner of the workshop said they could not nominate any one for the act and they had full faith in their employees.
In their complaint with the Waris Khan police, the goldsmith named no one as suspect and termed the incident a burglary.
The police late in the evening said their attempt to reach the thieves through sniffers dogs did not yield any results. The security guards could be taken into custody for questioning, said an official.
The representatives of Sarafa Union warned the authorities of launching protests in Rawalpindi if the thieves were not arrested within a week. They said their protests could spread to other cites of Punjab and other parts of country if the police did not cooperate with them.
The jewellers said that they had asked for the deployment of at least 10 policemen in the market, to protect the shops against the increasing incidents of robberies but no security was provided.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 25th, 2011.
Unidentified men broke into the workshop of a goldsmith at Sarafa Bazaar (gold market) and took away diamonds, gold and cash worth Rs120 million on Friday night.
Anwarul Haq, 60, was shocked when he found diamonds, gems, gold and cash missing from his shop when his employees opened it at about 12pm on Saturday.
The workshop is located on the first floor of Haq’s residence in New Sarafa Bazaar, and the burglars broke the rear door of the store at Friday night and took away the valuables, the victim told police and media.
The value of the lost items is not less than Rs120 million and most of the items were given by investors, he said.
His son, Amir Ahmed, told media, “We have been conducting the trade of diamonds and jewels throughout the country for a long time.”
He added that they have been in the business for the last three generations and have never seen a theft on such a large scale; he urged the police to nab the thieves and recover the goods.
Area Superintendent of Police Malik Matloob Hussain said the possibility of insiders being involved in the burglary could not be ruled out and they had taken the fingerprints from the briefcase and from other items in the room.
On the other hand, the owner of the workshop said they could not nominate any one for the act and they had full faith in their employees.
In their complaint with the Waris Khan police, the goldsmith named no one as suspect and termed the incident a burglary.
The police late in the evening said their attempt to reach the thieves through sniffers dogs did not yield any results. The security guards could be taken into custody for questioning, said an official.
The representatives of Sarafa Union warned the authorities of launching protests in Rawalpindi if the thieves were not arrested within a week. They said their protests could spread to other cites of Punjab and other parts of country if the police did not cooperate with them.
The jewellers said that they had asked for the deployment of at least 10 policemen in the market, to protect the shops against the increasing incidents of robberies but no security was provided.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 25th, 2011.