The Anti-Car Lifting Cell (ACLC) has arrested four of the five members of a gang of robbers, including the three brothers who ran the outfit, from the North Karachi town in District Central.
ACLC Karachi chief SSP Munir Ahmed Shaikh said that some video clips were aired on different TV channels showing a gang of men robbing shopkeepers and other citizens. Following the airing of the footage, Karachi police chief Additional IGP Amir Ahmed Shaikh tasked him with arresting the suspects.
The ACLC chief expanded his cell’s intelligence network as well as directed his subordinates to carry out patrolling and snap checking at different checkpoints, especially in District Central.
Late on Saturday night, ACLC personnel were conducting snap checking at 4K Chowrangi in North Karachi when they spotted some suspicious people riding motorcycles and signalled them to stop.
The suspects, however, fired at the police officials and sped away. The ACLC personnel pursued the motorcyclists and arrested four of them: gang leader Asif Shamsuddin, his brothers Tauseef and Raqeeb Shamsuddin, and their accomplice Zeeshan, alias Zeeshu.
The police officials also found a submachine gun, two MP-5 machine guns, two pistols, nine mobile phones and Rs11,400 in cash on the suspects, as well as impounded their two motorcycles.
SSP Shaikh said the gang had been involved in criminal activities since 2012 and had committed a number of crimes, including murders, attempted murders, kidnappings for ransom and street crime.
He added that gang leader Asif and his younger brother Raqeeb were arrested by the Rizvia police in 2013, but they were out on bail two months later. During the interrogation, the accused disclosed that they committed six to seven armed robberies on a daily basis. They also claimed that one of the seized MP-5 guns was snatched from a security guard at the Baqai Hospital.
The accused also committed snatchings at ATM booths of different banks in District Central. They were involved in contract killings and are believed to have taken a handsome amount for each of their murders.
Police said Tauseef is a drug addict and he committed his crimes after indulging in narcotics, adding that the suspect’s marriage fell apart because of his drug problem. Raqeeb, the youngest of the three brothers, has also been involved in several instances of street crime. He was injured in a previous shootout with the police and suffered two bullets.
The suspect had also murdered a man in the Pak Colony area during a snatching bid at a marble shop, and as part of his contract, he received Rs200,000 and two CG-125 motorcycles. He admitted to killing another man near Nagan Chowrangi in the recent past.
The fourth detainee, Zeeshan, was involved in criminal activities since 2009. He was imprisoned for 25 years in a terrorism case because of a kidnapping for ransom. He later filed a petition in the high court and managed to get his sentence reduced, following which he was released from jail this February and resumed his criminal activities, especially street crime.
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