KARACHI In what is being described as the biggest ever bank heist in the country, private security guards robbed a bank of foreign currency worth Rs311.2 million on Sunday morning.

According to sources, five suspects used a gas cutter to open the strong room of the I.I. Chundrigar Road branch of Allied Bank.

According to police, the main suspect, Shahid Mehmood, a guard of a private security company, arrived at the bank at 7.30am, half an hour before he was to report for duty.

He waited for his four accomplices who arrived with a gas cutter and tied up guards Imran and Zamir and the building's watchman Riaz.

It took them about three hours to break into the strong room which has seven large vaults. Shahid knew which vault contained foreign currency. They took away dollars, pounds and euros, police said.

Shahid had been hired by the Security Protection Service (SPS) two months ago. He had a computerised national identity card issued in Punjab and the provincial police's response to a request for verification was being awaited.Karachi police chief Waseem Ahmed told Dawn that the company had not verified his two guarantors.

'The guard was given uniform without adequate training and posted with a weapon at such a sensitive location,' the CCPO said.

Police suspected that the prime accused belonged to the NWFP and he had obtained a forged identity card.

After the culprits left, the guard Imran, who was supposed to have been tied, managed to free himself and take away a packet of currency.

Imran went to the house of his friend Aqeel Abbas, a dismissed ASI, in Preedy area. Because Aqeel was not there, Imran gave the packet to his family and returned to the bank in an attempt to cover up his involvement in the crime, police said.

During interrogation, Imran told police about the cash which as recovered from Aqeel's house.

It was apparently Imran's share of 45,000 euros in the booty, the city police chief said.

The entire event was recorded on CCTV camera but the quality of pictures was poor and the suspects could not be recognised. 'When an attempt is made to enlarge the picture the pixels break up,' a police officer said, adding that the camera equipment was of poor quality.

The CCPO criticised the bank management and said that none of its senior executives had bothered to contact police, leaving the matter to their staff.

He said two teams, one headed by Karachi South DIG Ghulam Nabi Memon and the other by Special Investigation Unit SSP Raja Umar Khattab, were handling the case.

Imran has been arrested and the dismissed ASI and two other people were being interrogated.

An FIR of the case was registered by Mithadar police on a complaint lodged by the bank's manager who nominated Shahid Mehmood and four unnamed accomplices.

On the advice of police, the Sindh home department had cancelled the licence of the security company, the CCPO added.