KARACHI, Nov 16: Armed men entered a branch of a private bank in the Ferozabad area near Shahrah-i-Quaideen and held the security guard and staff at gunpoint before walking off with more than a million rupees on Tuesday, officials said.

It is for a second time in one year that robbers have successfully struck the Habib Bank Limited Society branch.

The officials said that the footage of closed-circuit television cameras installed inside the branch showed that armed men entered the facility and left the scene only after collecting Rs1.1 million from the cash counter.

“Three men are seen in the footage,” said Ferozabad SHO Sub-Inspector Yaqoob Samoo. “Two of them entered the branch and held the staff at gunpoint in a conventional manner that had been witnessed in recent bank robberies. They collected the cash from the counter and escaped.”

Investigators, however, said that some witnesses saw a minor girl sitting in the car used by the robbers.

They said the footage acquired through the CCTV cameras clearly showed the faces of the suspects.

The officials confirmed that the senior staff of the HBL branch was being questioned about the heist.

“Exactly one year ago armed men robbed nearly Rs1.7 million from the same branch,” said an official associated with the investigation section of the Ferozabad police station. “Interestingly, like today's event, the incident had occurred only a day before Eid in the presence of almost the same staff.”

While the recording system and footage of the incident of Tuesday's heist were intact, the investigators remained confused about the looted amount.

“The branch staff claimed that the robbers took away more than Rs1.1 million, but their claim does not match the accounts, which were checked later in the day. This raised suspicions and we detained a few senior members of the bank for questioning.”

He said that an FIR would be lodged after confirming the exact looted amount.

“We are in contact with the senior management of the bank and also counterchecking the claims made by the branch staff. Currently we rely on their claims about the robbery of Rs1.1 million but for our satisfaction we are in the process of rechecking the branch accounts,” he added.

This year alone some 21 cases of bank heists have been reported and of them the police got success in only 11 cases.

Last Monday, three armed robbers stormed into a private bank branch in Federal B Area and walked off with nearly Rs2 million.