Officials gather near the bank where robbers tried unsuccessfully to burgle its ATM. PHOTO: ONLINE
A new group of robbers has just joined the crime scene in the city, taking the criminal activities up one notch with their indigenous tactics. This group specialises in ATMs, which they pull out and attempt to take away with them.
On Saturday, the gang attempted to run away after pulling out an ATM at a United Bank Limited branch at NIPA Chowrangi. Fortunately, the attempt was foiled by the timely response of the bank's security guard.
This was the second such incident to have occurred in the city recently. An earlier attempt on an ATM of the same bank's branch in Gulistan-e-Jauhar was foiled a couple of weeks ago. According to police, the same group of robbers was behind both the attempted robberies as the same modus operandi was used in both incidents.
At around 5:15am, a group of unidentified masked robbers arrived on a double cabin pickup at the United Bank Limited's NIPA Chowrangi branch in Gulshan-e-Iqbal. They entered the ATM room, painted the CCTV camera with black spray paint to avoid recognition, pulled out the ATM machine and were about to load it onto their vehicle when the guard noticed the suspicious activity. The guard sounded the alarm, causing panic among the accused. "They dragged out the ATM machine with a rope fastened to a car," explained the Gulshan-e-Iqbal SHO, Aurangzeb Khattak. "They were loading the machine onto their double cabin pickup when the guard tripped the security alarm."
Published in The Express Tribune, March 30th, 2014.
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