RAWALPINDI: Six robbers, two wearing helmets and the rest obscuring their faces using surgical masks, walked into the Gharid Abad Post Office on Friday morning, and left with pensions and the employees’ salaries.

The post office had been shut down by the police a few months ago due to a lack of security, but was re-established after a prospective candidate in the local government elections, Rehman Gul, spent a significant amount of money to arrange CCTV cameras, a backup UPS system, security guards and barbed wire along the walls of the post office.

But according to an employee of the post office, Abdul Hameed, the candidate lost the elections and did not pay the private security guard, who then left the job.

He said two motorcycles carrying six individuals stopped in front of the post office at around 11:40am on Friday, while the staff was busy.

“Two of them were wearing helmets, while the remaining others were hiding their faces with surgical masks,” Mr Hameed said.

He said soon after entering the post office, one of the men fired a gunshot but did not hit anyone.

Mr Hameed said he was counting the employees’ salaries, which the robbers stole.

The post office’s staff had also brought funds to be distributed as pensions. This too was stolen by the suspects, along with staff salaries worth Rs550,000.

The post office is located in a populated area, but due to electricity loadshedding, the UPS system was inoperative because its battery had died when the robbery took place. The police also could not obtain an image of the suspects due to the lack of CCTV cameras.

A complaint has been lodged with the Airport police station by postmaster Raja Iftikhar Hussain, and the police said they would investigate the post office employees before the registration of a robbery case.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2016