Five armed men looted foreign and Pakistani currencies worth Rs 310 millions from a private bank's branch situated at I.I. Chundrigar Road on Sunday, which is said to be the biggest bank robbery in the history of Pakistan.
According to details, the armed men looted foreign currencies including 0.7m pounds, 0.15m euros, 0.14m US dollars and Rs 10 million from Allied Bank's Foreign Exchange Branch. Initial investigations revealed that a security guard of the private security company hired by the bank, was involved in the robbery.
Sources told Business Recorder that an employee of SPS Security Company, Shahid Mehmood son of Abdul Majeed, and his four accomplices entered into the bank's branch at around 8:15am. The security guard reached the bank branch few minutes before his duty timing and relieved the night shift's security staff, they said. Then, he called his accomplices before the arrival of other security staff and started looting the bank.
In the meantime, when the two other security guards reached the bank branch, the armed men overpowered them. The dacoits broke the lockers of the bank and looted foreign currency worth Rs 310 million, they added. The Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Karachi Waseem Ahmed told Business Recorder that the police arrested the two security guards, who were present during the bank robbery and handed them over to Special Investigation Unit (SIU) for further investigations. On the pointation of the arrested security guards, police recovered Rs 5.5 million of the looted money from the residence of a terminated police officer in Preedy Lines, Saddar, he added.
He said the arrested security guards, Imran and Zameer, alleged that the police officer, Abbas, who was sacked from service, had given them arms and training for looting the bank. Two police teams headed by DIG South Ghulam Nabi Memon and SP SIU Umar Khitab have been constituted to investigate the matter and they were asked to submit their reports within two days, he said.
SP Saddar Town Abdullah Sheikh said that Mithadar police registered a case, No 1062/09, under section 395 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on the complaint of bank manager, Akhtar Hussain, against the security guard Shahid Mehmood and his four unknown accomplices. "The police are conducting raids at different places to arrest the mastermind and other accused," he added.