22 October 2004	Friday	07 Ramazan 1425

KARACHI, Oct 21: The two security guards who had robbed a money changer of foreign currency equivalent to Rs40 million on Wednesday are suspected of having links with some Jihadi outfits , Al Qaeda or the militants operating in South Waziristan, police said on Thursday. An initial report had put the figure of robbed amount at Rs20 million.

The guards were escorting Zafar Paracha, owner of an exchange company located on Abdullah Haroon Road, in transporting the currency in a car. They beat up and injured Mr Paracha before getting away with the money.

Senior police officials revealed that the information collected so far gave some credence to their suspicion. However, they appeared not being in a position to specify the nature of the ties the guards may have been maintaining with militants.

The guards' addresses in Karachi - Shireen Jinnah Colony, as recorded by them - turned out to be fake. Their NICs showed Mardan as their native town. As such, the intelligence agencies trying to locate them, are trying to find a clue to the two bearded guards, Ali Khan and Shaukat Ali.

The police officials fear that the huge amount of foreign currency they have taken away may be utilized in some subversive activity.

The officials said that the guards had been hired by the ¨Maverick Security Agency, one of them only three days before the robbery and the other was appointed about one month back. Police are also looking for two other suspects involved in the robbery but could not identify them.

Mr Paracha, the police said, had borrowed the car from one of his friends and did not know that the car was equipped with a tracker device.

The vehicle was already abandoned by the suspects when police came to know about the device.