KARACHI: The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) on Saturday claimed to have arrested seven suspects, including two bank guards, who had planned to commit two bank robberies in the metropolis next Friday with the help of their accomplice guards.

SIU SSP retired Captain Haider Raza said that they got confidential information from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) that an armed gang had planned to break open lockers of banks in Karachi next Friday and it would enter the city by road via Superhighway.

Acting on the tip-off, the SIU started snap-checking of vehicles at the Port Qasim Chowrangi at Superhighway.

Police seize weapons, explosives and 10kg hashish from them

At 5.45am, the police tried to stop a Prado vehicle and two motorcyclists who were coming from the road leading to Steel Town.

The persons in the Prado started firing and police also returned fire. “After the encounter, police arrested seven criminals,” the SIU claimed.

They were identified as Mohammed Nasir alias Attaullah, Syed Ali Hussain alias Kamal, Aalim Khan alias Taur Khan, Abdullah, Roofanullah, Mir Haider Hussain and two security guards Mir Syed Mir Askar and Mohammed Aqil.

The police claimed to have recovered one grenade, 10 kilogrammes of charas, three crackers, one Kalashnikov, one 9mm pistol and five .30-bore pistols.

‘Parachinar gang’

The police said that the held suspects disclosed that they belonged to the “Parachinar bank locker breakers gang” and were involved in many such crimes in various cities of the country.

Regarding their modus operandi, they disclosed that first they got their associates recruited through different private security companies in banks and then managed to get them posted during night shifts at the banks.

The police said they managed to get all important information about the banks before committing the crime.

They further disclosed that they had planned to rob two banks — a bank branch in district East and another in district Malir — with the help of Mir Haider Husain and Mohammad Aqil who were deputed in the bank branches in the night shift.

The police said that the weapons recovered from them including explosives were to be used by them in the commissioning of the robbery.

They had planned to break open the cash and other lockers of the banks after the working hours on Friday. Due to weekly holidays on Saturdays and Sundays, they would have found sufficient time before the bank staff arrived on Monday.

“They were planning to move cash and valuables by the Prado vehicle while the remaining suspects would have returned by air,” according to the police.

Held suspects Hasnain and Abdullah disclosed that they were also involved in murder and attempted murder cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2020