Slow progress: Police no closer to finding bank robbers

A month after police said suspects had been identified, probe stalls.

LAHORE:

Police are no closer to cracking two spectacular bank robberies by criminals dressed as cops earlier this year, despite the city police chief’s claims that the culprits have been identified, The Express Tribune has learnt.

On September 25, five men in police uniforms robbed a bank on Maulana Shaukat Ali Road, Faisal Town, at around 11am, taking some Rs4 million in under 10 minutes. On October 25, four men including three in police uniforms cleaned out a bank branch in Green Town, taking Rs3.1 million in two minutes.

The similarities suggested that the two robberies were conducted by the same gang. Capital City Police Officer Ahmad Raza Tahir told a press conference on October 31 that the police had identified the gang as a group of hardened criminals.

He said that they would never allow themselves to be captured alive, and the police would likely have to kill them in a shootout.

Police sources said that the CCPO had made the claim at the press conference after the police, suspecting they had identified the gang’s hideout, raided a place in Shahdara and found abandoned police uniforms.

However, several police officials involved with the investigations told The Express Tribune that the police chief’s claims were unsubstantiated and there had been little progress in the case.

Inspector Munir Khan, the investigation officer for the Green Town robbery, said that various leads were being explored, but the suspects had not been identified.

A source in the Crimes Investigation Agency said that both robberies were committed by a gang of eight to 10 people. He said that the security footage from the banks was blurry and difficult to analyse and did not clearly capture any of the robbers. “We have identified potential suspects but we’re not sure,” he said.

CIA Deputy Superintendent of Police (Organised Crime) Sadar Rai Zameerul Haq said there had been no breakthrough, but the investigation was ongoing. He said that the police were optimistic that the robbers would eventually be caught.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Abdur Razzaque Cheema said that the police were investigating potential suspects. He said it could not be said for certain that the same gang robbed both banks.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2011.