LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the Lahore police arrested two international gangsters wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), USA in a robbery case.

Pakistani citizens, Waqar Ghumman and Mohsin Zameer, were arrested from Lahore when they were stealing money from the ATM of a bank in Bahria Town. Mohsin was an IT expert while Waqar a driver in the US.

The USA had announced head money for their arrest on the recommendations of the FBI, a principal federal law enforcement agency of America.

FIA Lahore Director Abdul Rab said both the alleged criminals managed to flee the US after the FIA issued their arrest warrants one-and-a-half years back and went underground in Pakistan. The FBI had uploaded the criminal record of the both the accused on national and international websites to seek help for their arrest.

“Waqar Ghumman and Mohsin Zameer are wanted for their alleged involvement in an armed bank robbery, which occurred on Jan 8, 2016 in Tonawanda, New York,” he said while reading an international alert notice of the FBI.

The FIA director further shared details of their crime in the US, saying that both were carrying pistols as they forced their entry into the bank, aimed weapons on the customers and employees and issued them threats.

He said Ghumman had allegedly jumped the counter and demanded that the teller drawers be opened and emptied into a bag. He also ordered the bank manager to open the vault. After receiving money from the vault, Ghumman and Zameer exited the bank, further reads the FBI notice.

“On Feb 14, 2017, federal arrest warrants were issued for both Ghumman and Zameer in the United States District Court, Western District of New York, after they were charged with robbery, entering a bank with intent to commit a larceny and bank larceny,” the FIA officer added.

Lahore SP Dolphin Force Rashid Hidayat said the police arrested Waqar when he was involved stealing money from the ATM of a bank in Bahria Town. He said the Dolphin Force officials received an emergency call about the presence of the suspects in the ATM counter of the bank.

The team responded quickly and arrested the robbers who were later identified as Waqar Ghumman, a resident of Bahria Town, and Mohammad Nadeem of Gujranwala.

“Both were withdrawing money from the ATM through a skimmer, a card reader that can be disguised to look like part of the machine,” the SP said.

He added the skimmer attachment collects card numbers and PIN codes, which were then replicated into counterfeit cards.

“The skimming is the type of fraud that occurs when an ATM is compromised by a skimmer,” Mr Hidayat said.

As they tried to escape on the car (LEA-19 1677), more police were called who rounded them up by intensifying the pickets and took them into custody, the SP claimed.

Meanwhile, he said, the bank manager also called the FIA over cybercrime and the Dolphin Force handed the suspects over to the officials of the agency.

The FIA teams later arrested Mohsin Zameer, the accomplice of Waqar during a raid.

The SP Dolphin Force declared it a big development, saying that the accused wanted by the FBI had been arrested by the Lahore police.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2020