October 31, 2006	Tuesday	Shawwal 7, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 30: City police caught a rare robber on Sunday night - the driver of the police escort van of Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. It was both a case of ‘a cop turning a robber’ and ‘good cops catching a bad cop’.

As told to Dawn by police, driver Shakeel Ahmed was returning to Rawalpindi after escorting Sheikh Rashid to his residence in Islamabad when the devil took hold of him - or was it his cousin Naeem Akhtar who was with him?

Shakeel eyed two men waiting at the CDA bus stop and stopped his van, its red and blue lights flashing.

The late hour was reason enough to question them and, in the process, rob them of their cell phones and a total sum of Rs1,050. Job done, the van took off in the direction of Pirwadhai.

One of their victims however picked up the courage to report the robber cop to the nearby police picket.

That set the Islamabad police on a chase. SHO Sabzi Mandi finally caught up with them, busy robbing another citizen at Pirwadhai More. One of their earlier victims who had accompanied the SHO identified them as the culprits.

“We caught them red-handed. They had snatched the cell phone of their third victim. We recovered the phone and took them into custody,” SHO Khurshid Khan said.

Both the culprits claimed to be police employees but only one turned out to be true. Both were put in police lock-up and the police vehicle RLB 630 they used for robbing was impounded.

The vehicle was released on a court order on Monday.

“After getting permission from my officers, a case of robbery was registered against the two (culprits),” said the SHO.

It was surprising that the two could go on their criminal spree at a time when heavy security was in place for the arrival of Britain’s Prince Charles and his wife Camilla in Islamabad.

When asked for his comments, SP Headquarters Rawalpindi Police Chaudhry Suleman told Dawn that police driver Shakeel Ahmed would be dismissed from service “for such employees bring bad name to the force”.