RAWALPINDI: Six armed men robbed a bank on Peshawar Road on Wednesday, escaping with Rs20 million and a security guard’s gun.

Two of the bank’s guards, Mohammad Bashir and Mohammad Khan, were injured during the robbery and were taken to the District Headquarters Hospital. The condition of one of them is said to be critical.

According to the police, a car carrying six people drove up to Al Falah Bank at about 2pm. The robbers first shot the two guards at the entrance before walking into the bank. They then held the bank employees and customers at gunpoint because of which the staff could not activate the emergency alarm.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Attique Tahir told Dawn that the bank had an estimated Rs20 million on its premises when it opened Wednesday morning.

The SP said the robbers took less than 10 minutes after which they escaped with the loot. He added that the bank’s administration had already been served with a notice regarding its lack of security and the low quality of its CCTV cameras, which was not taken seriously.

Till the filing of this report, the police had not yet tracked down the culprits.

However, after the robbery, Regional Police Officer Mohammad Wisal Fakhar Sultan Raja suspended Westridge Station House Officer Malik Asif for negligence and gave charge of the police station to Chaudhry Jamil.

Two other robberies were also reported to the police on Wednesday.

Two unidentified gunmen held Salman Ahmed at gunpoint and made away with his motorcycle in Satellite Town, in the limits of the New Town police station.

In his complaint lodged with the Sadiqabad police, Khurram Shahzad said he was on his motorcycle with his wife when they were intercepted by two unidentified motorcycle riders who took away his wife’s gold jewellery.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2016