Millions lost in Karachi cash van heist

KARACHI: Two security guards were wounded in a cash van robbery on Friday evening, getting away with millions of rupees, in what appeared to be a case of violation of safety SOPs.

The incident took place in North Nazimabad in city’s district central. According to police, the incident took place when a cash van carrying three cash bags arrived at the deposit center when four armed men on two motorcycles opened fire, leaving two security guards injured in the presence of several security guards who did not resist the heist. The suspects escaped with one of the bags containing cash.

The injured security guards were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. A senior police official said that the transportation company used to collect cash from different banks and would deposit the cash at the deposit center. He added that the bullet-proof van had around one dozen security guards for collection and depositing the cash collected from the bank. “This is a violation of the SOPs by the transportation company as the incident occurred at 7pm, long after the bank’s closing time,” the officer said and added under the SOPs the transfer of cash is supposed to take place in day light.

Furthermore, he said that the cash van, according to the SOP, had to be parked inside the deposit center but instead it was stopped at the parking space outside the deposit centre and from there the staff started to shift bags from the cash van. If this was not all, “the security guards did not offer resistance despite presence of several guards.”

The police officer said while the cash was insured, nothing could be said about the exact amount robbed as the banking officials and the transportation company will inform the LEA of the details in the morning after counting but it was feared that the looted cash could be over Rs10 million. No case has been registered .