Taken for a ride: In a car, with four robbers

Unidentified men take Ali at gunpoint and use his car for an eight-hour looting spree.

RAWALPINDI: Four armed men kidnapped a man in his own car before embarking on a looting spree in the city. The gunmen released the man and his car in the morning, only after snatching mobile phones, wallets, laptops and other valuables from over a dozen people.

Sajjad Ali, a resident of New Harley Street, lodged a complaint with the New Town Police that four gunmen intercepted him on his way to a majlis from his office at around 11:30 pm and held him at gunpoint in his car.

“First a taxi hit my car from behind. I stopped the vehicle to examine the situation. I had an argument with a person who had come out of the taxi
and moved forward as no damage was done to my car,” said Ali, while talking to The Express Tribune.

The same taxi intercepted him near Siddiqui Chowk where the three gunmen forced him into the rear seat of his own car, after one of them took control of the steering wheel. They picked up their fourth accomplice from Dhok Kala Khan.

Aged between 20 to 25 years, they held him at gunpoint, asking him to remain quiet as they continued driving through the areas of Sadiqabad, Rahimabad, Dhok Kala Khan, Tarlai and Murree Road in Rawalpindi, looting over a dozen people in the process. These comprised pedestrians and car drivers.

“First, they stopped pedestrians on the streets and snatched their mobile phones and wallets. Then, they came out on main roads and started stopping vehicles and looted the passengers,” Ali told the New Town Police.

According to complainant, they stopped one car and snatched a laptop, wallet and a wrist watch along with other valuables from the driver. One of the cars managed to escape from the scene, which was later chased down. “After every incident they would ask me, ‘aren’t you enjoying this?’,” Ali added.

At one instance, they broke through a security check point from where a police vehicle pursued them. “The driver of the car whom the others were calling ‘Malik’ put out the lights of the car and entered into narrow streets of Dhok Kala Khan where the police lost us,” he said. ‘The gang
was well-versed with all the roads in the area’.

“In Rahimabad area they openly challenged four to five officials of Muhafiz police force on motorbikes. They had been spinning the car in front of the police officials who remained unmoved,” said Ali.

One of them said that they were professional robbers and had been arrested by the police many times in the past. “Another one claimed that they were paying Rs50, 000 to SHO of Sadiqabad Police station every month,” said Ali.

Later, the gunmen asked him to give them Rs80,000 or else they would not return his car. They also talked to some dealers of stolen cars on the phone. However, Ali was then taken to an ATM machine and
cash was withdrawn from his bank account.

At one point, the unknown gunmen were also thinking of kidnapping Ali, but dropped the idea after they realised that he was “a little too big for the trunk of his car.”

After snatching his two mobile phones, wallet and a wrist watch, the four gunmen set Ali free. Fortunately for him, the gunmen decided to let go off his car, after having used it for the eight-hour looting spree.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 12^th, 2010.