KARACHI, Nov 22: A gang of six bandits looted over Rs6.8 million from the Gulberg branch of the MCB Bank on Saturday, the police and witnesses said.

They said the bandits entered the MCB branch near Al Noor Mor at around 9.15am and swiftly relieved two bank guards of their weapons at gunpoint.The witnesses said the intruders took the bank staff and the customers hostage at gunpoint and made them sit on the floor with their heads down.

The police said the robbers scooped up Rs6.836 million and fled with the booty. They said the bandits also took away two repeaters of the bank guards and the recording and equipment of the CCTV camera.

The witnesses said the bandits had come there in two Alto cars, one white and the other grey. They said that six bandits entered the bank, while their two accomplices remained in the cars.

The witnesses said the bank guard watched the gang enter the bank as he was standing beside the transparent glass door inside the bank. Surprisingly, they said, the bank guard did not notice the six men come into the bank together.

The witnesses said that one of the bank guards was posted at a bunker inside the bank. However, they said, the bandits easily overpowered him giving him no opportunity to react to the situation.The police said the robbers were in their mid- and early 30s. They said one of the bandits carried a repeater, while the others were armed with pistols.

A case (380/2008) against unidentified bandits was registered under Sections 392 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the bank manager, Asif Ahmed.

The SP of Gulberg Town, Alauddin Abbasi, told Dawn that a police constable was posted near the bank. “But he didn’t know what was happening inside the bank as the manager failed to activate the alarm system,” he added.

Banaras tense

Tension and panic gripped the Banaras Chowk area and its adjoining localities in the morning when a large number of people took to the streets in protest against the illegal detention of a market owner, who was recovered from illegal police custody by a raiding judicial magistrate.

Witnesses said the agitators pelted vehicular traffic with stones and burnt old tyres to protest against the detention of Khalil Ullah, owner of Madina Electronic Market, at Banaras Chowk.

They said trouble started at around 10am and the situation eased out following the recovery of Khalil Ullah from the Peerabad police station.

Khalil told Dawn that he was called by the SHO of Peerabad on Friday afternoon. “They made me sit in the office of the DSP for four hours and then shifted me to the police station where they illegally held me for more than 26 hours,” he added.

He said he had nothing to do with the banner inscribed with warnings to the CD shopkeepers. “It is a personal matter relating to some 25 wooden cabins on my estate adjacent to the market.”

He said he had asked the cabin-owners to vacate the place as the wooden structures were too vulnerable to a sabotage activity. “I want to build shops on that piece of land.”

The market owner said a judicial magistrate raided the police station with his lawyer and son and recovered him from the illegal police custody.

He said his son, Naeem Ullah, had moved an application before the court against his illegal detention.

He said there were over 400 CD shops in different markets at Banars Chowk. “Pak Sharjah Market, Pak China Market and Awami Market are flooded with CDs and CD players,” he added.