Burqa-clad robber arrested with accomplice

Police on Sunday claimed to have busted a duo of street criminals who were using a burqa to entrap citizens and rob them.

According to Sir Syed police station SHO Shamshad Hussain, in the past few days, they had received seven complaints from citizens that a couple in which the woman was wearing a veil had robbed them at gunpoint.

He said he instructed officials to begin patrolling in the areas from where the robberies were reported and also deployed officials in civvies at various intersections. Around 1am on Sunday, the police station intelligence staff deployed near Anda Morr, North Karachi, saw a veiled woman standing alone at the stop and signalling vehicle drivers for a lift.

The officials shared the information with SHO Hussain. He instructed them to keep a close watch on the suspicious woman and rushed to the location. Hussain said that upon his arrival he saw that the woman had managed to get a vehicle driver to stop. Soon, her companions arrived on a motorcycle and began looting the driver at gunpoint.

The police then raised its alarm and ordered the suspects to surrender. However, they began firing at the police. Officials retaliated and after an encounter they managed to arrest two people, including the veiled woman.

Hussain said they proceeded to identify the suspects and were shocked to learn that the veil-wearing woman was actually a young man. Two TT pistols, three cell phones, looted cash of about Rs4,000 and a motorcycle which was a stolen property of Sir Syed police station was seized from the suspects.

During interrogation, they were identified as Anees and Babar and they confessed to committing street crimes in North Karachi, Bilal Colony, Shahrah-e-Noor Jehan and Surjani Town.

They admitted that they used to trap people by asking for lifts and using the veil to pass off as a woman, and as soon as the veiled person would sit in the car of the person who had stopped, their companions would arrive and rob them.

ACLC arrests

The personnel of the Anti-Car Lifting Cell (ACLC) also arrested two members of a motorcycle-lifting gang and recovered four motorcycles from them.

According to SSP Munir Ahmed Shaikh, based on a tip-off, a team of ACLC Orangi Town carried out a raid in the locality and after a resistance arrested two suspects later identified as Husnain Hussain alias Paro and Abdul Rehman.

Shaikh said Husnain is also a proclaimed offender in a case registered against him at the Madina Colony and Iqbal Market police stations. On the information received from Rehman, officials recovered four motorcycles which were the stolen properties of Iqbal Market, Ittehad Town, Peerabad and Gulshan-e-Maymar police stations.

SSP Shaikh said that during the past week they have recovered two snatched and stolen cars, 11 motorcycles, and also recovered four engines and chassis of motorcycles. They have also arrested one proclaimed offender, three absconders and seven other suspects.