KARACHI: Robbers stormed into a private bank branch in Baldia Town and walked off with over Rs2.7 million in the year’s eleventh bank heist in the metropolis on Friday, police said.

They said that some eight armed men entered the Meezan Bank branch in Baldia Town No 9 at about 9.35am, snatched the pistol of a security guard, held the staff at gunpoint and started collecting cash from counters.

SSP-West Azfar Mahesar said that another security guard did not put up any resistance as he instead of performing his duty was busy in some office work.

He said that the robbers collected Rs500,000 from the cash counter and then forced the operation manager of the bank to open lockers and took away more cash.

The total amount of looted money was estimated at over Rs2.7m, he added.

The police said that the robbers completed their swift action in less than 15 minutes and they also took away the digital video recorder and the pistol of the bank guard.

The SSP told Dawn that although the robbers had taken away the DVR, the police retrieved the CCTV footage of the robbery from the head office of the bank and it would help the investigators in identifying the culprits.

The police detained both security guards and two suspicious persons present in the bank at the time of robbery for questioning.

They said besides the bank staff, several customers were also present there.

“It’s a new branch of the Meezan Bank opened in July this year. It did not follow the standard operating procedure of the State Bank of Pakistan for banks to avoid robberies,” claimed the SSP.

He said that the police had written several letters to the bank management and the Ittehad Town SHO had personally met them asking them to follow the central bank’s SOP.

SSP Mahesar believed that the robbery was committed by a local criminal gang.

DIG-West Feroze Shah and Rangers officials also visited the crime scene.

Meanwhile, an official of the special investigation unit of the Karachi police told Dawn that it was the eleventh bank heist in the city during the current year.

He claimed that nine of the 11 cases had been solved.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2015

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