KARACHI: Armed robbers stormed a private bank branch in New Karachi, held security guards at gunpoint and walked off with over Rs1 million on Wednesday in the first bank heist of the current year, officials said.

They said three to four armed men robbed the MCB Bank branch near Do Minute Chowrangi within the remit of the Bilal Colony police station.

The robbers also hit two bank guards in the head with the butt of their rifle when they tried to put up resistance, the officials said.

SSP-Central Murtaza Tabasum told the media that an encounter took place between Madadgar-15 police and the suspects after they came out of the bank.

He said they managed to escape from the crime scene after taking away the bike of a citizen. However, apparently in a state of panic they left their own two-wheeler.

Police see involvement of a new group in the New Karachi robbery

He said that the robbers also snatched the weapon of one of the guards, but they threw it near the bank while escaping.

He said the motorbike of the suspects was not stolen or snatched.

‘New group’

Special Investigation Unit (SIU) SSP Haider Raza told the media that it appeared that this was a new group of bank robbers.

He said that the robbers took away a total of Rs1,035,000.

The SIU launched a probe into the incident, obtained the CCTV footage and other evidence from the crime scene.

The CCTV footage of the incident showed two robbers fleeing from the bank. They wore shalwar kameez and one of them was armed with a Kalashnikov rifle while the other carried a pistol.

A robber also opened fire towards a guard but missed. A shot was also heard from the guards’ side but the suspects escaped safely.

The security guards, identified as Sher Ali and Khayal Mohammed, were shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for treatment.

The SSP Central said that three security guards were present inside the bank and one of them was in the bunker and armed with a repeater gun that he did not fire.

He said that the police would approach the bank management for giving small arms to the guard posted inside the bunker within the bank premises.

Suspect killed in ‘encounter’

In a separate incident, a suspected robber was killed and another hurt in an alleged encounter in the early hours of Wednesday in the city’s suburbs.

“After exchange of gunfire, one robber identified as Imtiaz was killed while Naik Mohammed was arrested in an injured condition,” said a police officer at the Memon Goth police station.

The dead and wounded suspects were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

The police claimed to have recovered two pistols, one motorbike without number plate, four mobile phones and Rs12,500 from their custody.

Woman stabbed to death

A 55-year-old woman was killed allegedly by her husband in the Memon Goth area on Wednesday, according to police.

They added that the body of Hayat Bibi was found in her home in Ghafoor Basti. The police said she was stabbed to death by her husband, Mir Hazar Khan, over some domestic issues. The suspect managed to escape.

The body was shifted to the JPMC for a post-mortem examination.

Three ‘Lyari gangsters’ held

The Malir police on Wednesday claimed to have arrested three suspects linked with Lyari gangsters.

The police conducted a raid and arrested Rashid Salari, Irfan Zaheer, and Sajid in Malir City.

“The held suspects were linked with Lyari gang war,” claimed Malir SSP Irfan Bahadur. “They have established a reign of terror in the area as they were involved in robberies, attempted murders, extortion and other heinous crimes,” he said.

“They were operating at interprovincial level,” he added.

The police claimed to have seized one Kalashnikov, one pistol, one 12-bore repeater and three kilos hashish from their possession.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2021