October 07, 2008	Tuesday	Shawwal 7, 1429

KARACHI, Oct 6: A policeman and a bandit were wounded when gunmen robbed Rs15 million from private security guards at the Water Pump intersection on Monday.

The heist, said to be one of the biggest in the city’s recent history, occurred when cash was being shifted from a bank into an armoured vehicle of the Phoenix Security Company, police said.

“It was around 4.30pm when security guards were taking out the cash in bags from the Muslim Commercial Bank’s water pump branch to put it into their vehicle when the bandits struck,” said Gulberg SP Alauddin Abbasi.

There is a certain limit to which a bank can keep cash in its strong room, and the rest of the cash is supposed to be shifted away, said a police officer quoting the bank staff.

That is what was being done when the six to seven bandits arrived there in a car and on a motorcycle, armed with automatic weapons.

Eyewitnesses said the bandits first opened fire on the police constable who was standing close to the bank’s entrance. Subsequently they snatched the cash bags from the hands of the security guards, who failed to act against the bandits. “My policeman, despite being wounded, opened fire on the fleeing bandits, wounding one of them and smashing the rear of the car the bandits used for a getaway,” the Gulberg SP said.

The policeman’s actions were also captured on the CCTV recording, which was later examined by the police.

The CCTV recording also showed that instead of opening fire on the bandits, the security guards ran into the bank premises to take cover.

A private security guard who was also posted at the bank entrance did try to open fire on the bandits but his weapon mal-functioned, an examination of the CCTV recording revealed, the SP said.

A camera installed at the entrance of the bank captured the incident. However, the camera could not capture the bandits, the police said.

The firing by the police constable wounded a bandit who was trying to escape on a motorcycle.

Later, the robbers dumped the motorcycle and the wounded man was dragged into the car by his associates.

Apart from the motorcycle, stolen in the jurisdiction of the Saeedabad police station in 1996, police found a pistol at the crime scene presumably left by the fleeing bandits. None of the security guards was injured in the firing. The police constable suffered a gunshot wound in his leg. He was later shifted to hospital for treatment.

Following the incident, the four security guards responsible for the cash transportation were detained for questioning by the police.

“Apparently the four guards were not involved in the heist,” said a police officer who had questioned them.

Following the incident, a message was relayed on the police control about the suspect having a gunshot wound, directing that if he reached any hospital, police should be immediately informed.

Police also launched a search for a golden Honda City car with the shattered rear window. Security guards did manage to note down the registration number of the getaway car but it turned out to be fake.

An FIR (86/2008) was lodged by the security agency under Sections 353, 324, 397 and 34 of the PPC at the Yousuf Plaza police station.

On Aug 15 bandits struck at the Habib Bank Mansfield branch in Saddar in the small hours and took away millions of rupees worth of cash and valuables by breaking into the lockers. They had brought gas-welding equipment to cut the lockers.

The bank heist could not be recorded as the CCTVs were off after the banking hours.