North Karachi bank heist case lodged

A day after the first bank heist of the year, police registered a case against six unidentified robbers on Thursday.

The FIR was lodged under sections 395 and 337a-1 at the Bilal Colony Police Station on behalf of the bank’s operation manager, Tahir Khan. The police had obtained the CCTV footage of the incident and fingerprints from the crime scene, but they had failed to trace the suspects.

On Wednesday, armed robbers made off with over Rs1 million from a branch of a private bank in Karachi. The robbers managed to escape after injuring two security guards of the bank.

The branch where the robbery took place is located at Do-Minute Chowrangi in Sector 5 of North Karachi. Four men in shalwar kameez entered the bank, then took the staff members and customers as well as the security guards hostage at gunpoint. Witnesses said the robbers fired at least two warning shots while entering the bank, following which they took all the people inside hostage, and they also injured the two security guards by hitting them with their guns.

The guards have been identified as Khayal Khan and Sher Ali. Bilal Colony police said the bank management claimed the robbers had looted Rs1,035,000. Officials claimed an exchange of fire had taken place between the fleeing robbers and the police, but the suspects left their motorbike behind and escaped on another snatched two-wheeler.

Police said three security guards were on duty at the bank, with two of them held hostage while the third one was in the bunker, adding that he could not retaliate as he had a repeating rifle.

Officials said fingerprints were being obtained to help trace and arrest the suspects. Police suspect a new group could have been behind the incident. Sindh police chief Mushtaq Mahar has sought detailed reports from the West Zone DIG and the Crime Investigation Agency DIG.