Shadman bank heist suspects arrested, announces Rind

Karachi police chief Khadim Hussain Rind on Thursday night held a media briefing at his office to announce the arrest of the suspects allegedly involved in the heist at a private bank in District Central’s Shadman Town a day earlier.

Addl IGP Rind told the media at the Karachi Police Office that the police arrested the robbery suspects and solved the case within 12 hours. He said that five suspects were arrested and Rs8 million were recovered from them.

He pointed out that the suspects had robbed over Rs8.6 million from the bank on Wednesday and also snatched the weapons of the security guards. He said a team headed by the District Central police chief was formed to investigate, and with the help of technology and CCTV camera footage, the suspects were arrested.

He also said the detainees have been identified as Ishaq, Siddique, Abdul Ghaffar, Mansoor and Imran, adding that Ishaq and Ghaffar had done a recce of the bank a day before the heist.

According to District Central SSP Faisal Abdullah Chachar, the suspects were attempting to leave Sindh after the heist. He said that the entire amount looted from the bank was recovered as well as the weapons snatched from the security guards.

Bank employees and guards had been held hostage at gunpoint as the suspects had robbed Rs8.6 million. They had also snatched a 12-bore repeater and a 30-bore pistol from the security guards. It is believed that due to negligence and a lack of checking, the suspects had managed to enter the bank with weapons.

SSP Chachar said that all the money looted from the bank, the three pistols used in the crime and the weapons snatched from the bank’s security guards have been recovered from the arrested suspects.

According to the police investigation, suspects Ishaq and Ghaffar had done a recce of the bank on Tuesday, while Ishaq and Mansoor had collected the money from the bank counter to put it in the bag they had brought with them, which could be seen in the footage.

‘Street crime declining’

Addl IGP Rind also claimed on the occasion that the crime graph, especially that of street crime, has shown a decline in October when compared to the preceding months. He said that after the changes made in the police teams, their actions over the past month and a half have drastically reduced street crime.

Sharing the details, the city police chief said street crime incidents have dropped from 260 to 241 a day. A decline has also been observed in the number of injuries during muggings, he added.

He said that since the police teams have been changed, 219 encounters have been held from September 10 to date, in which 32 criminals have been killed and 982 have been arrested, with 230 of them in an injured condition.

Action has also been taken against vehicle lifters, with six car snatchers, 16 suspects involved in car thefts, 75 motorbike snatchers and 322 suspects involved in motorbike thefts arrested, 11 of them in an injured condition, he added.

Rind said police have recovered one Kalashnikov, 948 pistols, 13 rifles, four repeaters, three hand grenades and 4,437 detonators from the arrested suspects during a crackdown on criminals over the past month.