KARACHI, Nov 1: Exactly one week after the last bank heist, armed robbers struck again in the metropolis and snatched over Rs4.7 million from two branches of as many private banks in Karachi’s central district on Friday, officials said.

In one of the robberies, a security guard was also killed by the robbers when he put up resistance.

In the first incident, six men riding three motorcycles came to a United Bank Limited branch in Paposh Nagar at about 10am, snatched the weapons from a police constable and a private security guard and entered the bank branch without facing any resistance.

The officials said that a third guard was sitting in a bunker inside the branch but he did not do anything and the robbers also disarmed him easily.

They held the staff at gunpoint, snatched Rs3.25 million and escaped. They threw the weapons of the policeman and the guards at some distance.

A case was registered against unknown robbers on a complaint of the bank manager, Abdul Wahid.

Half an hour later, five armed men reached a Faysal Bank branch in Buffer Zone at around 10.30am in a white car. A private security guard, identified as Sharafat, was present outside the branch but he did not offer any resistance and the robbers easily entered the bank, where they tried to snatch the gun of another security guard, Ramzan Mehmood, 35.

However, the guard offered resistance upon which one of the robbers fired a single shot that hit him in the head. He died on the spot.

Later, they held the staff at gunpoint, collected Rs1.5m from the bank and fled in their car, the police said.

SSP-Central Amir Farooqi said it appeared that the guard was an associate of the robbers and fled along with them.

He said an initial probe suggested that he got the job on the basis of a fake computerised national identity card.

Taimuria SHO Ejaz Lodhi said that a case was registered against the robbers and security guard Sharafat on a complaint of the bank manager, Rao Faisal.

With the latest incidents, the number of bank robberies in Karachi has reached 27 during this year.

On Oct 25, armed bandits had stormed into a private bank branch in North Karachi, also in Karachi’s central district, and drove off with more than Rs4m.

Involvement of Taliban elements ruled out

While the investigators had blamed Taliban elements for several bank robberies, this time they ruled out their involvement and said that the jobs were carried out by two separate criminal groups.

The SSP-Central said that after examining the CCTV footage of the Buffer Zone robbery investigators identified one of the robbers. He was involved in a previous bank robbery and today he was wearing a helmet to hide his face. However, the investigators managed to identify him, he added.

SSP Farooq Awan, the chief of the Special Investigation Unit (SIU), confirmed that guard Sharafat was involved in the Buffer Zone bank heist and said that the private security firm did not thoroughly verify his credentials.

Besides, all guards deputed in the two branches were not properly trained to curb such incidents, he added.

He explained that in the Paposh Nagar incident, an armed guard was sitting in the bunker but did not do much despite the fact that he could have easily targeted the robbers.

The SIU chief said that there was no bunker in the Faysal Bank branch and it was a sheer violation of the standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued by the State Bank of Pakistan to all banks.

He said while it was the responsibility of the law-enforcement agencies to provide security, they could not practically protect all banks, which must follow the SOPs.