KARACHI: Armed robbers on Thursday took away around Rs3.3 million from the branch of a private bank in North Nazimabad, police said.

They added that none of the three security guards resisted the armed robbery.

Three suspects wearing trousers and shirts entered the Meezan Bank branch located in North Nazimabad at 1:08pm, said an official at the Taimuria police station.

As one of the unarmed guards tried to search them with a metal detector, a suspect took out a pistol and pushed him down on the floor. “It can be watched in the CCTV footage that the guard was not carrying any gun,” the police official added. He said that the bank manager had initially told the police that the robbers took away between Rs200,000 and Rs250,000 from the cash counter but later he changed the statement citing that Rs3.3 million was taken away. He added that police investigation was under way to ascertain the facts and identify the suspects.

Two other bank guards were sitting on the stairs of the bank, but they also did not put up any resistance, the police investigators said.

Two of the three suspects who entered the bank, took out their pistols and collected the cash placed at the counter of the bank and fled on two motorbikes parked outside, the police added.

Taimuria SHO Qalandar Bukhsh said there was some variation in the version of the bank manager and what could be examined in the footage of the closed-circuit TV cameras installed at the bank.

The bank administration claimed that the robbers whose number was said to be six snatched a pistol from the security guard posted there. However, when the police took the CCTV footage in their custody for investigation and examined it, it emerged that the guard was unarmed.

The SHO said that investigation was under way to ascertain the facts and identify the suspects.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2014