Third time unlucky: Rs5.2m stolen in 17th robbery since January
Rs60m have been stolen in total, this is the third heist this month.
KARACHI:
At 2:55pm on Wednesday, three men entered a private bank in North Nazimabad and left about five minutes later bearing bags filled with Rs5.2 million and the bank’s security footage.
The unidentified men orchestrated what has been the third robbery this month in which a collective Rs14 million have been stolen. It is the 17th bank heist since January, bringing the total amount of money stolen to over Rs60 million. The Shamim Shaheed police were not notified till 20 minutes after the robbers had made their getaway.
The men entered the bank in the Gol Market area in broad daylight and managed to disarm the security guard. They held the staff and clients hostage while they emptied the cash counters and vault. About five to seven minutes later they made a clean escape, taking closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage with them.
“The method suggests that the robbers were professionals and had come fully prepared,” said DSP Rehmatullah. “We also suspect that there was an inside man involved who was supporting them.” According to staffers, there were three men involved, one in jeans and a shirt and the other two in shalwar kameez. Apart from that, they know nothing about any inside help the robbers might have had. No one even saw them come or go, so their escape vehicle remains a mystery. For all they know, the men could have been on foot.
The police are disgruntled because, yet again, their persistent warnings to banks to adopt the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for security have gone ignored. They claim this is why banks are being robbed repeatedly. There was only one security guard at the bank even though the SOP recommends having at least two. The fact that they were informed of the incident late did not help matters.
“The bank administration’s first mistake was having one guard instead of two, and he too was on duty inside the bank when he should have been outside,” said the DSP. “Their second mistake was waiting 20 minutes to inform the police.”
The officer said that they have also yet to ascertain why no one pushed the security alarm or whether they had backup CCTV footage - both measures dictated by the SOP.
Police have detained the staff and are questioning the security guard about his possible involvement with the robbery. He works with a private security company and was deployed at the bank last month. He claimed that he used to work as a teacher at a private school and had only recently switched to security.
The administration has also been called in. They are to be included in the investigation. No case had been registered till the filing of this news story.
Earlier, Karachi Additional IG Ghulam Shabbir Sheikh took notice of the rising number of bank robberies in the city and blamed the banks’ defective SOPs. There are about a dozen gangs involved in these robberies and with the exception of suspects involved in one or two heists, they have all evaded arrest.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 1st, 2011.
At 2:55pm on Wednesday, three men entered a private bank in North Nazimabad and left about five minutes later bearing bags filled with Rs5.2 million and the bank’s security footage.
The unidentified men orchestrated what has been the third robbery this month in which a collective Rs14 million have been stolen. It is the 17th bank heist since January, bringing the total amount of money stolen to over Rs60 million. The Shamim Shaheed police were not notified till 20 minutes after the robbers had made their getaway.
The men entered the bank in the Gol Market area in broad daylight and managed to disarm the security guard. They held the staff and clients hostage while they emptied the cash counters and vault. About five to seven minutes later they made a clean escape, taking closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage with them.
“The method suggests that the robbers were professionals and had come fully prepared,” said DSP Rehmatullah. “We also suspect that there was an inside man involved who was supporting them.” According to staffers, there were three men involved, one in jeans and a shirt and the other two in shalwar kameez. Apart from that, they know nothing about any inside help the robbers might have had. No one even saw them come or go, so their escape vehicle remains a mystery. For all they know, the men could have been on foot.
The police are disgruntled because, yet again, their persistent warnings to banks to adopt the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for security have gone ignored. They claim this is why banks are being robbed repeatedly. There was only one security guard at the bank even though the SOP recommends having at least two. The fact that they were informed of the incident late did not help matters.
“The bank administration’s first mistake was having one guard instead of two, and he too was on duty inside the bank when he should have been outside,” said the DSP. “Their second mistake was waiting 20 minutes to inform the police.”
The officer said that they have also yet to ascertain why no one pushed the security alarm or whether they had backup CCTV footage - both measures dictated by the SOP.
Police have detained the staff and are questioning the security guard about his possible involvement with the robbery. He works with a private security company and was deployed at the bank last month. He claimed that he used to work as a teacher at a private school and had only recently switched to security.
The administration has also been called in. They are to be included in the investigation. No case had been registered till the filing of this news story.
Earlier, Karachi Additional IG Ghulam Shabbir Sheikh took notice of the rising number of bank robberies in the city and blamed the banks’ defective SOPs. There are about a dozen gangs involved in these robberies and with the exception of suspects involved in one or two heists, they have all evaded arrest.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 1st, 2011.