05 December 2004	Sunday	22 Shawwal 1425

MINGORA, Dec 4: The police are still chasing the remaining three bank robbers who escaped early Friday morning from a mosque where they had taken shelter.

The District Police Officer (DPO) Swat Syed Akhtar Ali Shah said in a press conference at his office on Saturday that the police recovered heavy arms, ammunitions and over Rs1.3 million in cash from the dacoits.

He dismissed reports about an alleged suicide attack by two of the bandits and said that nothing like this had happened and the police had targeted all of them. He said that the police had cordoned off the area and forced the robbers to surrender.

Sources said that the gang leader, Farooq Shah alias Shahjee, was also involved in an attack on the ISI office in Belogram in Swat last month.

Referring to a statement of robbers, an official said that they had targeted the National Bank branch in retaliation to the government's decision of freezing accounts of outlawed organizations.

Fourteen armed men had broken into a branch of the National Bank in Chuprial in Matta, Swat, and snatched Rs2.6 million on Friday.