Over half a million rupees, gold looted as bank robbers strike again

KARACHI: Three robbers made away with Rs6,75,000 (Rs0.675 million) in cash and some gold from a private bank's branch on Napier Road on Tuesday in the sixth bank heist reported in the city this year.

SSP City Adeel Chandio said the robbers entered the bank at around 8:35am and held the manager, staff and guard hostage. “They made away with cash amounting to Rs0.675 million and also some gold,” the SSP said, “The robbers also took away the CCTV footage records.”

The officer said investigators were working on some potential leads but no arrests had been made as yet.

  SP City Shehla Qureshi said the suspects arrived on two motorcycles and stated that it seemed that someone from the bank’s staff had colluded with the robbers. She said the bank’s manager was present inside the bank before its scheduled opening time and that the guard had gone to change his clothes when the robbers barged in.

The SP added that an audit was being conducted at the branch when the robbery took place and confirmed that five staffers, including the manager, were being interrogated. 

Kharadar police station’s SHO Zafar Iqbal said the gold looted was kept in the bank by people to acquire loans. He added that the forensic division and officers of the Criminal Investigation Agency and the Counter-Terrorism Department had gathered evidence from the bank and were actively assisting in the investigation. In the first half of this year, robbers hit at least five private bank branches across the metropolis, while eight were looted in the first half of the year 2016.

This year’s first bank robbery was reported on January 19 in which half a dozen robbers made away with Rs1.2 million from a bank located at Punjab Chowrangi. On April 18, six robbers stormed into a private bank branch in Gulshna-e-Iqbal and walked off with Rs1.2 million, whereas, two banks were robbed in May.