Karachi: Millions of rupees looted in bank robberies in 2011

KARACHI: Karachi, a city of two million population already on the mercy of ethnic violence, sectarian clashes, land mafia, gang war, targeted killings and extortions, is now facing an alarmingly and escalating bank robberies, Daily Times has learnt.

The robbers fearlessly looted valuables from local banks and industries. Ironically, they successfully broke all security measures of the law enforcement agencies, remaining triumphant in all 19 bank robberies of this year, snatching weapons from the security guards and bagging CCTV cameras as they fled.

The bandits who broke into two separate banks situated at Rizvia and Soldier Bazaar were cognizant to the extent that they did not even bother to take the CCTV cameras as the surveillance system was out of order for a week.

According to official statistics, 19 bank robberies were reported in 2011 with an estimated looting of Rs 60 million of which the law enforcers have only recovered Rs 1.6 million. Another robbery incident was reported from the precincts of Awami Colony police station where bandits looted Rs 15 million from a cash van in broad daylight, leaving a security guard killed while two others injured.

Police said that a gang of armed motorcyclists intercepted the cash van of a private security company at Korangi Road and opened indiscriminate fire when the guards offered resistance, leaving the van driver namely Mir Sabir, 45, son of Ghulam Ali, killed while two others, including Mir Zaman, 41, and Gul Faraz, 40 injured.

They said that the armed looters only managed to whisk away with Rs 15 million although an amount of Rs 60 million was present in the van. They said the security company had not registered any complaint in this regard so far.

Sindh Home Minister, Manzoor Wasan, admitted that the security guards were untrained hence no resistance was put forth and directed all security companies to acquire approval from the police department before recruiting any person as a security guard. In all 19 bank robberies, zone west remained the most affected vicinity.

Investigators said that the chances of the involvement of the outlawed organisations in these bank robberies could not be ruled out as the investigation agencies, including Special Investigation Unit and Crime Investigation Department, revealed the involvement of outlawed organisations’ workers to generate funds for their organisations. They said the authorities concerned had to evolve a comprehensive strategy to cope with the bank robbers with iron hands.

The original article can be found at Daily Times.

[google-map]