Second in 2 days: Rs.4.3m bank robbery in Karachi

The looters also took away the mobile phones of staff members, bank’s closed circuit camera footage before fleeing.

KARACHI: Seven robbers managed to flee with Rs4.3 million in cash from a private bank in the Soldier Bazaar area of Karachi on Thursday. This is the 15th bank robbery this year.

According to SP Umar Raja, seven robbers entered the bank and held the staff and security guard hostage. He added that some of the staff members, including the branch manager, were tortured by the robbers.

The incident took place in a branch of Habib Bank Limited (HBL) in the limits of Soldier Bazaar Police Station and the money looted was worth Rs4,347,870.

The looters also took away the mobile phones of staff members as well as the bank’s closed circuit camera footage before fleeing.

This is the second bank robbery in Karachi in two days, causing the financial sector a loss of around Rs8 million.

The police claimed that the two robberies were similar in nature and it is possible that the same gang is behind both incidents.

Police has registered a case number 305/2011 under section 395 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) against unidentified culprits on the complaint of the branch manager of the bank.

On Wednesday, six men dressed in shalwar kameez escaped with Rs4 million from Habib Metropolitan Bank, Gulshan-e-Iqbal branch. SHO Kanson Dean said that the men also stole six mobile phones and took the CCTV footage system with them.