KARACHI: As police gathered information without making any breakthrough in the investigation of the Monday heist, the private bank on Tuesday vowed to follow the rules set by the State Bank of Pakistan and compensate the holders of all the 90 lockers that had been looted.

Police authorities confirmed to Dawn that nothing credible had emerged during the investigation so far, but expressed confidence that they would make headway ‘very soon’ after initial findings.

“Investigations are still on and nothing much has emerged so far,” said SP Farooq Awan of the Special Investigation Unit of police, which has been tasked with the investigation of bank robberies along with terror and extortion activities. However, he expressed the hope that the police would come up with “some progress very soon”.

Know more: 90 lockers broken open in Gulshan bank heist

It was estimated that cash and jewellery worth Rs10 million were taken away from the lockers of the Meezan Bank’s Gulshan Chowrangi branch. But the police were yet to confirm the exact value of the jewellery.

Meanwhile, the Meezan Bank management said it would compensate the locker holders who suffered losses. “We will definitely compensate each and every victim of this incident,” said Meezan Bank corporate communications head Sohail Khan.

In reply to a question, he said it was up to the customers to acquire lockers of different values depending on their requirement. The bank was never aware of the exact value of the product being kept in the lockers by the clients, he said. “So we will compensate them against the value of lockers they have acquired from banks ranging from Rs300,000 to Rs1 million. It’s all defined in the SBP regulation which we will follow and ensure that all our customers are compensated as soon as possible,” he pledged.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2015

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