Police foil bank heist bid in Samanabad

Police foiled a bank robbery bid and arrested two suspects in Samanabad’s Block 19 on Saturday.

SSP Muqadas Haider of the Central district told The News that a group of four robbers entered the branch of a private bank situated on a road leading towards to Shafique Morr at around 2:30pm.

“The robbers initially held the bank guard hostage at gunpoint and deputed one of the group members on the entrance for the monitoring purpose,” the SSP said, adding that three other members of the gang held the bank staff hostage and warned them of dire consequences if they put up resistance.

“In the meantime, the police got information, and a police mobile on patrol reached there,” SSP Haider said.

The police arrested the robber standing on the entrance and entered the bank. When the robbers saw the police, they tried to escape, but the police arrested another member of the gang.

Two suspects managed to escape after jumping from the rooftop of the bank’s three-storey building. 

The SSP said that before fleeing, the suspects hid themselves in the building for some time.

When questioned about the identities of the accomplices who managed to escape, the police officer said the group was highly trained and they first disconnected the DVR system before trying to rob the bank.

SHO Rao Nazim of Samanabad Police Station said the arrested men were moved to an undisclosed location for interrogation. 

Bank robberies remain a challenge to law enforcement agencies in Karachi, where 12 banks were robbed last year. Ten of the heists occurred in the first four months of 2016, and another took place in the remaining eight months.

In the heist this year, six robbers had taken away Rs2 million from a private bank located near Punjab Chowrangi in the Defence area.