ISLAMABAD, July 21: Robbers stormed a house in G-15/4, beat up the family and made off with valuables worth Rs3 million after forcing the women in the family to prepare Sehri for them, Dawn has learnt.

According to the police, seven people entered Yasir Sheikh’s house (House No. 70, Street 5, Sector G-15/4) and stayed there for six hours during which they robbed the family off cash, gold, prize bonds and other valuables.

They collected gold biscuits and jewellery worth Rs1.8 million, prize bonds of Rs965,000, Rs200,000 cash, television, DVD and other electronic instruments.

An official of the Tarnol police station said the first information report (FIR) was registered and the police were investigating whether a servant or any relative of the family was involved in the theft.

Resident of house, Yasir Sheikh, while talking to Dawn, said they had shifted to the house which was located in a private housing society four months ago.

“I, along with my wife, was invited to an Iftar party while my brother, Atif Sheikh, had gone for Taraweeh on Saturday night. When he returned from the prayers at 10:30pm, seven people entered the house with him and tied all family members before starting a search for valuables in the house,” he said.

When Yasir Sheikh returned from the party after 11pm, he said he found the doors open.

As soon as he entered the house, two robbers grabbed him and held a pistol to his head before tying him and his wife.

“After collecting all the gold, prize bonds and cash, they said they had been told that there were 80 tolas of gold available in the house. I told them that we had given them all that we had, but they insisted on the gold and started torturing us,” he said.

Mr Yasir, who is a data processing officer in the Statistics Bureau, said the robbers, who were speaking Pashto, placed his mother’s hand on the floor and started hitting it with a hammer. They also beat his sister and wife and then started torturing his father.

“Meanwhile, the time for Sehri started so they untied my mother and wife and instructed them to prepare food. My wife and mother prepared. They also untied other family members to ensure that we had Sehri with the robbers, and they parked our car outside our house,” Mr Yasir said.

He added that at the time of Sehri, the robbers had to remove their masks due to which he was able to see their faces. He said two of them were in their mid 30s (and were heading the group), one was around 17 years old while the others were in their mid 20s.

“At 5am, the robbers finally left in their cars and warned us that they would come again if we informed the police. However, before leaving the two men in the mid 30s searched the pockets of the other five robbers to see if they were hiding some jewellery etc,” Yasir Sheikh said.

However, he informed the police soon after the incident, at which the Superintendent of Police Saddar, Deputy Superintendent of Police and Station House Officer of Tarnol Police reached his house and registered an FIR after recording his statement.

“I also contacted the security incharge of the housing society, who claimed that two guards had been deputed but were unfortunately not present on Saturday night,” he said.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Bani Amin Khan, while talking to Dawn, said he had been waiting for the arrival of the new IGP to handover charge to him. Therefore, he had not taken any action against the police officers responsible for the security lapse.

“I have instructed the SSP to look into the issue and ensure the arrest of the robbers,” he said.