Rawalpindi: Rs120m burglary in Sarafa bazaar

RAWALPINDI, Sept 24: In what is being described as the biggest burglary in the Sarafa Bazaar of the city; cash, diamond and golden jewellery worth about Rs120 million were taken away from a goldsmith`s workshop at  Kucha Ganga Ram on Friday night.

The Waris Khan police said Anwar Ahmed alias Dada Anwar, the owner of the workshop, came to his workplace on Saturday morning and found a hole in the rooftop and the wall. Inside, he found a large quantity of gold, diamond and jewellery missing along with the cash, said the police.

As the news spread in the new Sarafa Bazaar, jewellers gathered outside the goldsmith`s workshop and chanted slogans against the police for its failure to provide them security.

Superintendent of Police Rawal Town Malik Matloob Ahmed and Waris Khan Police Station House Officer Raja Rasheed along with a heavy contingent of police reached the scene and tried to pacify the protesting traders but in vain.

The police high-ups called forensic experts who collected evidence from the crime scene.

Aamir Ahmed, a son of the victim workshop owner, told Dawn that the burglar had stormed into their workshop via its roof and taken away the cash and valuables worth Rs100 to Rs120 million.

He said only 10 per cent of the gold and diamond belonged to them as the remaining material was given to them by different jewelers for making jewellery.

To a question, he said his father, brother and he along with an employee worked in the workshop, established in 1948, and they had no doubt on their worker`s character. He said the police had taken fingerprints and they would be provided with all the details regarding the jewellery.

Some jewellers, who have been associated with this business in Sarafa Bazaar since long, called it the biggest theft in the market.

The office-bearers of Markazi Union of Sarafa Bazaar, including its senior vice-president Sheikh Ishaq Hamid, general secretary Mohammad Fayyaz Qureshi and vice-president Chaudhry Fayyaz denounced the incident and threatened an indefinite strike from Sunday if the robbers were not arrested by the police.

They demanded of the government to provide the jewellers with adequate security. They said the trade unions would devise their future strategy at a meeting soon.

SP Rawal Town Malik Matloob Ahmed told Dawn that the goldsmith`s workshop was located in a three-storey old building whose doors were also in a poor condition. He said the burglar had entered the workshop from the top storey by breaking the rundown wooden door. When inside, he added, the culprit only broke the almirah in which the jewellery was kept.

“It clearly indicated that the burglar was very close to the owners of the workshop that he even rightly knew which stuff was kept where,” the SP said, adding the police were also investigating the matter from different aspects. He said the police already had collected the fingerprints and called army`s sniffer dogs. To a question, he said the police did not believe in the amount of looted items as mentioned by the owner and would verify the details from other jewellers.

Meanwhile, the police said six persons had been arrested from different parts of the city in connection with the incident.

The original article can be found at Dawn News.

[google-map]