GUJAR KHAN, Dec 24: Crime rate has touched alarming limits as the robbers continue to loot residents without any fear of the police.

Thieves, burglars and thugs in police uniform have been on a rampage in the eastern areas of Gujar Khan while the complaints of the residents seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

According to local sources, on Wednesday, at about 2:30pm, a gang of four armed men, picketing Pleena-Kangar Road, looted a number of commuters.

Mazhar Hussain, a resident of Dhoke Baba Faqeeru, told this correspondent that he was robbed of Rs25,000 and a mobile phone by the armed men.

Mohammad Ayub, a resident of Kangar area, complained that a gang of burglars looted gold ornaments weighing 12 tolas from his house on Tuesday night. The same night the house of Mohammad Arbi, another resident of Mandhaal village, was targeted by burglars and cash, amounting to Rs18,000 and gold ornaments were looted.

Similarly, the house of Abdul Ghafoor, also from the same village, was also targeted on Tuesday night and gold ornaments and cash were looted. A gang of thieves barged into the house of Akhlaq in Mandhaal village but the inmates got up and the thieves ran away without looting anything.

The houses of Fazalur Rehman in Dhoke Lass and Ghafoor in Mandhaal village were also targeted and details of the looted valuables could not be confirmed.

In another incident on Wednesday a gang of thugs, wearing uniform of police and other law enforcement agencies, went door to door in the streets of Jhangi Hamid village in the jurisdiction of Mandra police station.

According to residents, these uniformed men, during their door-to-door visits, conveyed the orders of the police highups to contribute Rs2,000 each. The villagers, on seeing these people wearing uniforms of Punjab police and ICT police, handed them whatever amount they had in their homes.

Later after visiting over 200 houses these thugs managed to escape. A local reporter, Raja Mohammad Arshad, a resident of the same village, got information about this looting spree and he informed the local police but the robbers managed to escape.

The residents of Kangar and Mandhaal areas told Dawn that the same gang of highwaymen was picketing a deserted road near Patan Hill Behgaam area on December 16 at about 10:30am and they looted Rs80,000 and a cellphone from Abdul Majeed, Rs40,000, a cell phone and wrist watch from Amjad Iqbal, resident of Thakra village, Rs24,000 and cellphone from Mohammad Ishaq, a resident of Barah Mohrah.