Robbers escape with Rs0.8m from private bank

Four armed men robbed a bank on Sharea Faisal on Thursday and made away with around Rs0.8 million.

According to District East Senior Superintendent of Police, Noman Ahmed Siddiqui, the Ferozeabad police station received word at around 2:30pm that a bank robbery had taken place within its limits.

He said police vans immediately rushed to the site and found that the branch of a private bank – Bank Islami – located on Sharea Faisal had been looted. During the initial investigation, police found that four armed men riding on motorbikes had stopped outside the bank and had entered inside after overpowering the security guard.

The men held the bank staff and customers inside hostage at gunpoint and escaped after looting money from the cash counter. According to the bank manager, an estimated Rs800,000 was stolen, the SSP said. He added that the bunker inside the bank was used as a store room and guards were not placed there.

The policeman further said that they had obtained CCTV camera footage and were trying to develop the suspects’ sketches with its help. He added it was too early to confirm the involvement of any criminal group but the possible involvement of militants also cannot be ruled out.

Earlier on May 3, six armed robbers took away Rs5 million cash from a private bank branch near NIPA Chowrangi in this year’s second reported bank heist. According to CCTV footage of the incident, six armed robbers entered the bank at 1:53pm. One of the robbers first handcuffed the security guard standing outside and dragged him inside. Then, one by one, five of his accomplices entered the branch.

One of them ran towards the security guard standing in a bunker inside the bank and snatched his weapon. The men stayed inside the bank for three minutes only and collected Rs5 million cash from the counters, filled it in two bags and left at 1:56pm.

Police said the way the robbers overpowered the bank’s guard suggests that they had carefully monitored their positions in their earlier visits to the branch. The suspects did not even wear any masks and all of them had beards. Police arrested three of them a few weeks later. They were identified as Azhar Maqsood alias Haji, the ringleader, and his accomplices Ayaz and Noor Aslam.