Rise in robberies: Bank heists post upsurge in Balochistan

Province witnesses a sharp rise in number of banks looted by militants or ‘highly trained robbers’.

QUETTA:

Armed with a TT pistol, 35-year-old Nazir Ahmed closely watches every person entering the bank.

He is deputed at Bank Alfalah on Double Road in Quetta, which was the third bank to have been robbed in the last two months. “The guards deputed here before me were fired as they had failed to thwart the robbery,” he tells The Express Tribune.

Besides kidnapping for ransom, another preferred way for militants to raise money now is reportedly looting banks.

In the Balochistan province, millions of rupees were stolen in six bank robberies – with three in the provincial capital alone – during the last two months, while an attempt to rob a cash van was foiled. A security guard lost his life in the attempt.

Another robbery attempt in Mastung, about 45-kilometre off Quetta, was foiled in which five security personnel were killed.

This was earlier known to be a phenomenon in Karachi, which now seems to have been adopted by militants in Balochistan.

According to statistics obtained from the Balochistan police, more than a dozen banks were robbed last year. However, the last couple of months have seen an anomalous spike in the number of bank heists.

Nearly Rs6 million were robbed from Bank Alfalah on Double Road, Rs2 million from a NIB Bank branch on Masjid Road, while Rs1 million from Allied Bank, Saryab Road.

The biggest robbery occurred in Industrial Town of Hub, Lasbela district, where thieves took away Rs13.4 million from Habib Metropolitan Bank. A group of eight people robbed the bank in the morning, took away their computers and damaged the CCTV cameras.

Even a bank in Mach was not spared, as it was robbed of Rs2.1 million.

Meanwhile, in Mastung, five policemen and two robbers were killed after an exchange of fire. The incident was tragic as the well-equipped and trained robbers also injured Mastung Assistant Commissioner, Deputy Superintendent of Police and another officer.

One of the dead robbers had been identified as an official of the Balochistan Constabulary, a police force for B-area of the province.

A senior police officer claims that three suspects have been arrested in connection to the heists. “The men arrested [also] have a connection to other bank robberies in Karachi. There are two to three groups involved in Quetta and they have links with banned militant groups – the Taliban and Baloch insurgents,” said a senior official of Balochistan goverment, requesting anonymity.

However, police officers are not too sure whether it is banned religious outfits or the Baloch militants who are behind the heists.

Quetta police chief Abdul Razzaq Cheema blames the lack of security for these bank robberies. The Quetta police warned regional officers of the banks to ensure complete security as they could be targeted by organised criminal gangs, he says. “The security guards are not trained while no security official is placed at a vantage point. The guards are deputed near the main gates and robbers easily snatch their guns and hold them hostage.”

The Quetta police chief thinks that the robberies are often the work of militant groups but says it is premature to point at any single organisation.

At least four banks were shut down after police found the security inadequate in Quetta. “The security is the responsibility of the police but the banks are equally responsible for the security inside the branches,” maintains Cheema.

But banks have low-paid security guards hired from private companies doing the job. But as police chief Cheema said, they are not highly trained. Brave guards, like Nazir, insist that it is their duty to protect the bank. “I am not afraid of my job,” he says.

However, valour is not enough to tackle armed and trained robbers.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2014.