Law and order: Rs15m taken away in six-hour hold-up

20 men dressed as policemen scaled the walls of a rickshaw factory.

LAHORE: Robbers took away valuables worth Rs15 million from a rickshaw factory in Kahna late on Tuesday night.

Police said 20 armed men, impersonating policemen, scaled walls to Rozgar Rickshaw factory near Halloki at 11pm and held up the factory staff.

Akhtar Ali, the owner of the factory, told The Express Tribune that the ‘policemen’ said they had information about wanted criminals hiding in the factory.



He said they wanted to search the factory and arrest the criminals. He said the robbers asked him to cooperate with them and ordered all factory workers to gather in the courtyard. He said some of them spoke Pashtu.

He said they held up the factory staff and took away their cell phones before they opened the factory’s gate to let in two trucks. Ali said they loaded 400 engines, 500 batteries, bearings, leather seats, two alignment machines, computers, gas cylinders and audio tapes onto the trucks.

He told said of 33 men present, the robbers hit two on the head with pistols. He said they drove away at 5am after tying up the workers.

He said some of the workers managed to free themselves after a while and informed the police at around 10 am. Ali said the factory was not insured.

Model Town SP Tariq Aziz Sindhu said the factory, built on two acres, was covered by CCTV cameras but the robbers had taken away the recorder and the DVDs as well.

He said the owner was claiming loss of Rs40 million but the actual worth of the stolen goods was likely to be around Rs15 million.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 9^th, 2014.