August 22, 2008	Friday	Sha'aban 19, 1429

HYDERABAD, Aug 21: Police teams investigating the Aug 5 robbery in which the city’s main branch of Muslim Commercial Bank was deprived of Rs15.2 million, are likely to widen their net and move to Punjab in search for absconding members of the 10-man gang.

A police source said that they had credible reports that after the arrest of two main culprits their accomplices had fled to the Punjab. “Our teams will leave for Punjab once the report has been confirmed that the gangsters have fled there,” said the source. He said that one or two gangsters were believed to be in Karachi.

Police had picked up the third suspect identified as Ali Ahmed Khatian but the source maintained his involvement in the crime could not have been proved so far.

Police did find Rs117,000 in his possession but it could not have been verified whether the currency notes were the looted ones, said the source.

Two culprits Ghulam Abbas Siyal and Barkat Lashari who were arrested earlier have been remanded to police custody in two cases lodged at Hatri and Baldia police stations.

Hyderabad DPO Ghulam Nabi Memon told a press conference on Tuesday that the third suspect whom he did not identify had been picked up but his involvement was yet to be proved. He claimed that police had found Rs2.7 million in Lashari and Siyal’s possession.

Lashari, the DPO believed, was the main facilitator of the crime because the gang planned the robbery at his place.

The source said that Lashari ran a showroom or rented premises for a showroom in the Cantonment area where the gangsters had gathered.Ten armed bandits intercepted an armoured van of a private security company and looted over Rs15.2 million the vehicle was carrying to the main branch of MCB in Gari Khata after collecting money from a number of branches on Aug 5.

—Correspondent