Punjab

Cops & robbers: Jewel thieves - not cheaper by the dozen

Gang of 12 crash wedding by posing as police and rob guests of jewellery worth Rs300,000.

Express December 23, 2011

MULTAN:

Over twelve robbers crashed a mehndi function in the guise of police officials and robbed the wedding party on Thursday afternoon.

According to eyewitnesses, eight men dressed as police officials broke into a wedding function. They herded wedding guests into the house for ‘questioning’.

“They kept telling us that there were complaints of illegal activities at the wedding and they needed to see if there was any alcohol or illegal substances being handed out,” said a wedding guest Rukhsana. “We cleared the way but then they took over two dozen people inside, including the bride’s family,” she added.

The incident occurred during the mehdi function of Alpa area Gehnay Wala resident Nasir’s daughter’s wedding. “My family were setting out the dowry for the guests to see when the men broke in and began questioning us,” Nasir said.

Nasir said that the robbers stole jewellery and cash worth over Rs300,000.

Nasir’s wife Basheeran said that her daughter Fatima’s jewels were scattered on the bed when the robbers tied up all the men of the family in one room and locked the women in another.

“They shoved us into a room at gun point and began demanding that we hand over all our jewellery. We gave them the jewels we were wearing and the ones that we were going to give my daughter,” she said.

“They were dressed like police and at first I thought they were going to arrest us but they turned out to be a gang of robbers,” said wedding guest Saliha Bibi.

After the ‘police men’ left, several wedding guests went to search for the family and said they discovered them locked in two rooms. “The robbers left with the stolen goods in bags that they had brought with them. We didn’t even know we should stop them because we thought they were police,” said a wedding guest Zulfiqar, who saw the thieves leave. “We believed they were cops and went to see if the family were okay. We found them tied up,” he added.

Real police were then called to the scene. Multan Civil Lines police have now registered a case against a dozen unidentified accused in this regard.

“We have asked the family to describe the men and a police team is already looking for them,” said Inspector Rameez Khwaja.

Police officials have registered theft cases against the twelve accused and said that they would also begin searching local Friday markets for stalls selling police uniforms. “It is illegal to sell police uniforms … robbers posing as cops could be a dangerous trend.

This must be nipped in the bud,” said investigation in-charge Khaliq Uzair.