Around Rs34 million was looted from a private bank near Ichhra on Tuesday by what police claim was the ‘Pathan Gang.’
Police officials told The Express Tribune that bank staff told them six armed men held up the Bank Alfalah at main Ferozepur Road for three minutes before making away with Rs33.99 million in a bag. They said eyewitnesses told them the men were armed with 0.30 bore pistols, spoke Pashto and looked like Pathans.
Police said that the men parked a white Cultus on the opposite side of the road to the bank for their getaway. They said the robbers managed to open the safe but left around Rs 20 million worth in foreign currency untouched in their haste.
Ichhra SHO Ahsan Asraf Butt told The Express Tribune that two of the men entered the bank armed without being checked by the two security guards.
“The guard supposed to stand in the bunker had left his spot,” he said. He said that more men entered the bank after a while and snatched the other security guard’s rifle and held the bank’s staff hostage.
He said that the CCTV cameras did not catch their exit since both cameras were fixed to face the ATM. He said that the rest of the CCTV footage showed the robbers in action.
Using the footage, CIA police and the organised crime unit claimed to have identified three of the men as Awal Zarin, Nadir Khan and Qadir Khan.
CIA SP Captain (r) Malik Liaqat told The Tribune that the bank had been robbed by “the Pathan gang.” He called the incident “a security lapse on the part of the bank security which did not resist” the robbery. He said further investigations were underway.
Police officials suspect the gang has robbed at least nine other banks in Lahore. On April 30, SSP Investigation Abdur Razzaq Cheema told a press conference that police had arrested two members of a 32-member gang that was behind the part of bank robbers in Lahore.
He said that at least five other suspected members of the gang had been apprehended by Kohat and Rawalpindi police.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 30th, 2012.
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