Islamabad : The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Police missed 48-hour target given by its chief to recover Rs800,000 looted from a journalist at gunpoint in Sector I-8/1 of federal capital, as robbers are still on lose and untraced.
On September 23, two gun-toting robbers deprived Ishtiaq Ahmed, senior reporter of Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) of Rs800,000 and pay orders valuing Rs3 million as he arrived at his residence in sector I-8/1 after withdrawing from a private bank in I-8 Markaz. As per the footages obtained from Safe City and private cameras, the suspected robbers awaited the victim outside the bank and chased him before entering Rawalpindi through Stadium Road after the crime.
Following the incident, Station House Officer (SHO) of Industrial Area Police Station Mian Khurram was suspended immediately after Advisor to Prime Minister on Interior Shahzad Akbar took notice of his negligence.
Following a meeting with a media delegation, he had also directed the ICT police to trace out the criminals.
Inspector General Islamabad Police had assured the journalist community to arrest the robbers and recover the looted money within 48 hours. However, despite passage of four days and availability of footages hinting their escape route, zero progress has yet been achieved to trace out the criminals. According to the CCTV footage, apparently the very two motorcyclists also robbed Rs1.1 million from another man named Arshad in Sector G-9/3 on September 9, after chasing him from F-10 Markaz branch of the same bank.
While reiterating 48-hour deadline, ASP Zohaib Ranjha had formed teams to arrest the targeted offenders from Islamabad and Rawalpindi but so far no such arrests were made for identification of the criminals.
SP Industrial Area Zubair Sheikh said the efforts were underway to arrest the criminals. They are also working to locate them through multiple footages as well as through other methods.
He said geo fencing of the area had also been ordered to trace the dacoits through detecting their cellular activity. “The police are resorting to usual slackness. After giving high hopes of 48 hours target, the police authorities are now asking me to relax and wait,” said Ishtiaq, the victim of I-8/incident.
He said it were the police supposed to find out CCTV cameras and obtain footages, but unfortunately, they have to be pushed every time to do their job.
Meanwhile, President National Press Club (NPB) Islamabad Shakeel Anjum, its General Secretary Answer Raza and other journalists from various media houses have expressed their anger over sluggish policing and demanded Advisoer to Prime Minister on Interior Shehzad Akbar to re-direct for immediate arrest of culprits. Instead of providing relief to the journalist, President NPC Islamabad Shakeel Anjum said it was very sad that police officials had been asking him ‘to get relax’. He said that journalist had been deprived of his hard-earned money and media community would not get 'relaxed' till the arrest of culprits, recovery of amount and security to journalists in the capital city.