Four jeweler homes hit in Quetta heist

Burglars loot gold, silver, cash during wedding absence

QUETTA:

In a major burglary, four professional jewelers belonging to the same extended family were robbed of cash, gold ornaments and a large quantity of silver in the Pashtoonabad area.

The incident occurred when the families had gone to attend a relative's wedding ceremony on Sariab Road, leaving their homes unattended. Upon returning around 6am the next morning, they found their houses ransacked and valuables missing.

Nazir Ahmed, a jeweler and resident of Pashtoonabad, lodged a formal complaint at the Pashtoonabad police station. He told police that six houses of their family are located in a small residential colony in the area. On the night of the incident, he and his cousins' families had left for the wedding hall, returning only at dawn.

According to the complaint, four unidentified armed men scaled the boundary walls of the houses, broke in and carried out the theft before fleeing on motorcycles.

The stolen items included: 50kg silver blocks, two grams of gold ornaments and Rs6 million cash from Nazir Ahmed's house; 78 grams of gold ornaments, Rs2 million cash and one licensed pistol from his cousin Shabir Ahmed's house; 130 grams of gold ornaments and Rs2.5 million cash from cousin Khan Muhammad's house; and 50 grams of gold ornaments, two kilo silver and Rs1.5 million cash from cousin Zubair Ahmed's house.

In total, the robbers escaped with approximately 52 kilograms of silver, 458 grams of gold ornaments and Rs12 million in cash.

Following registration of the case, Pashtoonabad police have transferred the investigation to the Serious Crime Investigation Wing. SSP Serious Crime Investigation Wing Malik Muhammad Asghar Usman has formed a special team, which has seized CCTV footage from the area and launched a probe to trace and arrest the culprits.