August 16, 2008	Saturday	Sha'aban 13, 1429

KARACHI, Aug 15: Bandits robbed a bank of cash and valuables worth millions of rupees by breaking open the lockers using gas- powered welding equipment in the small hours of Friday.

The heist, which took place at the Mansfield Street branch of the Habib Bank Limited in Saddar, was said to be one of the biggest in the recent months in the city.

An interesting aspect of the robbery is that most of the initial details were obtained by the law-enforcers through a letter left by one of the bank’s security guards identified as Shah Mohammad who was asleep inside the bank when the robbers came.

The letter, addressed to one of his associates Gulistan who was not present when the heist took place, contains a blow-by-blow account of the robbery.

Quoting the letter, police said that the guard was fast asleep inside the bank when four men woke him up and took him hostage at gunpoint.

Describing the bandits, Shah Mohammad has written that two were wearing shalwar kameez and the other two were clad in trousers and shirts. When he asked as to how they had come inside the bank, they replied that they had the keys.

A senior police official said that the robbers were well-prepared as they had also brought with them gas-powered welding equipment to break the lockers open.

In the letter, the guard who claims to be the sole witness of the heist, says that he was fleeing as he feared that the police would not buy his version of the events that took place inside the bank and would eventually arrest him and might also subject him to physical torture.

However, he repeatedly stresses in the letter that he had no role in the break-in and the robbery but was running away because police would not believe him.

The guard belonged to a private security agency. Police said that under an agreement guards from the same company had been deployed at almost all the branches of the Habib Bank Limited. Police said that the bandits entered the bank at around 5am and finished the job before the opening hours.

It was only when the bank staff came to work that they found it to have been abandoned by the security guard and the lockers lying opened, they said.

Police said that the bandits successfully broke open 56 lockers and took away all the valuables kept inside. However, the bank staff claimed that 190 lockers were still safe as they had not been touched by the bandits.

DSP Preedy Salman Ahmed quoted the bank staff as saying that they had not been able to accurately assess the losses as proper assessment could only be done once the depositors submitted their claim forms.

As the news of the robbery spread, a large number of upset depositors started thronging the bank branch. Hysterical scenes were witnessed when some women depositors broke down upon hearing about their losses.

Similarly, male depositors were seen highly perturbed over the incident blaming the bank branch for what they called poor security arrangements. Apart from the common depositors, several jewellery shops located in Saddar had also deposited their assets in the bank’s lockers.

The close circuit TV cameras, which often provide valuable clues to police in bank robberies, were not working at the time of the robbery. These cameras were activated only during the office hours, DSP Salman said, adding that they had requested the bank branch to check if the system might had been left in the working mode.

However, since the bandits didn’t take away the recordings of the CCTV it could be concluded that they were quite sure of the fact that the cameras were not functioning at that time, a senior police officer pointed out.

Police have taken into custody for questioning the parents of the bank guard. Police said that apart from him there was no witness to the robbery.

SSP Saddar Dr Amir Shaikh told Dawn that he suspected the involvement of the bank guard. He was of the view that the guard’s escape suggested his involvement in the robbery. He said that around 40 per cent bank robberies took place with the connivance of the security guards deployed at the banks.