Exchange of fire: Police kill three ‘gangsters’ involved in bank heists

The alleged criminals were also wanted in targeted killing cases

KARACHI: The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) police killed on Tuesday three suspects, who were allegedly involved in heinous cases of crimes including bank robberies and targeted killings.

The alleged criminals were killed in a pre-dawn raid in Chakra Goth in Korangi. According to the officials, the SIU police were deployed at Chakra Goth Road on a tip-off about the possible movement of notorious criminal gang of Saeed Bengali, in the area.

“We were already present there and busy in snap-checking, to arrest Saeed Bengali and his gang members,” said SIU chief SP Farooq Awan, while addressing a press conference at his office. The exchange of fire took place when the police tried to intercept the four suspects going towards Chakra Goth graveyard on two motorcycles, he said, adding that the suspects opened fire on them and tried to escape.



After an exchange of fire, three of the alleged gangsters were injured while the gang leader, Bengali, managed to escape. The wounded suspects succumbed to their injuries while they were being shifted to Jinnah hospital.

SIU chief further said that the gang leader has been associated with the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) Punjab and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi as the organisational chiefs for the Karachi chapter. “He even got militancy training from Afghanistan,” he added.

Quoting the initial investigations, the officer said that the accused persons who were killed have been involved in at least three cases of bank robberies. The suspects allegedly killed two security guards, Shafi and Dilshad, during a robbery at United Bank Limited, Korangi branch, in January last year and looted nearly Rs2 million.



One of their gang members, Bilal, was earlier killed during a robbery at Habib Bank Limited branch in Korangi, this year in April. Bank staff and security guard were also injured, while the robbers looted Rs1 million from the bank, SIU chief said.

Another member of the gang, Javed alias Khajri, was also killed during a robbery at Meezan Bank in Landhi last month, in which the robbers looted Rs5 million. “We have identified them through the CCTV footages of the banks,” the officer said. The suspects were also wanted for allegedly killing a man, Mubassir, in Zaman Town over the suspicion of being a police informant.

SP Awan further claimed that all these suspects took extortion money from traders and industrialists. He added that they kidnapped whoever refused to give them extortion and only released them after taking ransom money.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2015.