Five robbers arrested in raids by South Range police

The District South police, during a crackdown against street criminals and other robbers, have arrested five men on charges of involvement in robbing citizens, especially those returning from banks after cash withdrawals.

Police said the raid was carried out by a team of the Defence Police Station in a locality, where the cops faced resistance but succeeded in arresting three notorious robbers, who were identified as Ali Shan, Farhan Khan and Khalid Mehmood.

They also claimed seizing three 30-bore pistols and a motorcycle, which was stolen property of the Saddar Police Station. During the initial interrogation, the outlaws disclosed that they robbed citizens who were returning from banks after withdrawing handsome amounts of money. Their modus operandi was that one of their accomplices, Mehtab, would enter the bank and tip other robbers off whenever a customer withdrew a big amount of cash. The other robbers would then give a chase and loot the amount.

They further disclosed that they had robbed about 25 to 30 people before their arrests. On September 19, 2019, they had looted a citizen, Kamran, near Jinnah Hospital after he had withdrawn Rs20 million from Soneri Bank situated on II Chundrigarh Road. An FIR of the incident was lodged by the Saddar Police Station.

The suspects disclosed that they had distributed the looted amount in Defence View at their hideout and each one of them got Rs3.3 million. The cops have recovered Rs3 million from their possession and are carrying out raids for the arrest of other robbers for the recovery of the remaining amount.

They suspects said they were habitual criminals and had earlier been arrested by the Iqbal Market, Moachko, Kalri, Frere, Defence, Azizabad, Gulshan, Saeedabad, Jamshed Quarters, Boat Basin and Surjani Town police.

In a separate raid carried out by the Defence police, two more robbers identified as Shahid Shah alias Asif and Waseem Shah were arrested and two 9mm pistols were found on them. Their two associates managed to escape, however.

During initial interrogation, they admitted that they on November 14, 2019, had looted a citizen, Waqas Aslam, in the Aziz Bhatti area and deprived him of 45 expensive cellphones and Rs100,000.

On information given by the suspects, the police recovered 25 cellphones, and rest were said be in the possession of fleeing accomplices. Post-arrest questioning revealed that the two had formed the group in 2003 and used to commit crimes in different parts of the city. They said they usually robbed dealers of the Saddar Mobile Market, and that they had earlier been arrested in the jurisdiction of difference police stations of Karachi.

They also disclosed that they robbed a cigarette dealer in Bilal Colony in 2018 and deprived him of Rs2.8 million. When the victim put up resistance, they killed one guard, Iqbal, while another guard, Muhammad Nadeem, was injured. In the offence, they used a 9mm pistol, which the police also found on them. Further investigations are underway.