KARACHI: Around a dozen suspects stormed a private bank in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Thursday afternoon, held the security guards and staff at gunpoint and took away over Rs3 million as the management allegedly did not follow the standard operating procedure (SOPs) prescribed by the State Bank of Pakistan to prevent such robberies, police said.

Gulshan-i-Iqbal DSP Agha Asghar told Dawn that around 12 suspects arrived at the Faysal Bank branch situated near Mochi Mor in Block-2 at about 2.12pm. Four of them stayed outside the bank while the eight others entered it. They snatched a pistol and a shotgun from the two guards posted there, made the staff hostage and took away Rs3,100,000 from the cash counter and strongroom.

Initially, the bank management told the police that the robbers had taken away Rs5.7m but later it transpired that Rs2.6m was safe, found in a bag at the cash counter.

“The bank management was found in flagrant violation of the SOPs ordered by the SBP,” said the Gulshan DSP.

‘The bank management was found in flagrant violation of the SOPs ordered by the SBP’

He said that though the bank management followed the SOPs by establishing a bunker inside it, the guard was sitting there with its door open and the robbers made him hostage. Both guards were also not properly trained as they did not put up any resistance. The dacoits snatched a pistol and a 12-bore gun from them but later they threw the gun there and took away the snatched pistol.

Furthermore, the bank management did not set off the alarm when the robbers entered it while the strongroom was also not properly secured.

The DSP said the CCTV footage obtained from the bank showed that the robbers arrived on motorcycles but they left the bank in a pickup.

The police took the two guards into custody for interrogation.

The officer ruled out the possibility of involvement of militants in the bank robbery.

This was the fifth bank robbery of 2017 in Karachi. In April a money changer was robbed in the Boat Basin area, in which the security firm owner was arrested on abetment charges. His two guards were found involved in the robbery, termed the year’s biggest.

The outgoing AIG Karachi, Mushtaq Ahmed Mahar, had recently warned bank managements that they could be booked on charges of ‘abetment’ in case of bank robberies as the SOPs of the SBP were not being followed to prevent such robberies.

Meanwhile, IGP A.D. Khowaja took notice of the bank robbery and urgently sought a detailed inquiry report from the DIG East.

He also directed the CIA DIG to ensure collection of all available evidence from the crime scene, record statements of witnesses and the bank staff and ensure arrest of the culprits.

Factory employee shot dead by robbers

A man was shot dead by suspected robbers over resistance in the SITE area on Thursday, police said.

They added that Darvesh Zaman, 48, drew cash from a bank and was riding a motorbike when gunmen on a motorcycle intercepted him near the Fire Brigade office in Metroville. As he put up resistance, the robbers fired at him and escaped with Rs75,000, said SITE SP Asif Ahmed Bughio.

He sustained a single bullet wound in the chest and was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.

The victim, a resident of Sherpao Colony in Landhi, worked in a factory there. The police were trying to obtain CCTV footage to ascertain identity of the killers, said the officer.

Two suspected robbers shot dead in ‘encounters’

Two suspected robbers were shot dead in separate shoot-outs with Rangers and police in Shah Latif Town and within the limits of the Tipu Sultan police station, respectively.

A paramilitary force spokesperson said that two suspects were looting people in Cattle Colony of Landhi when a citizen, Ishaq, told Rangers personnel about it who rushed to the spot and in an ensuing encounter a suspect, later identified as Imtiaz Akbar, was killed and Abdul Razzak was arrested.

The held suspect was handed over to the police with a weapon for further legal action.

Separately, Tipu Sultan police personnel gunned down a suspected robber while his accomplice escaped. They were allegedly looting people near a railway crossing in PECHS Block-6, in the early hours of Thursday.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2017