KARACHI: Police arrested four Chinese nationals for illegally drawing cash from automated teller machines (ATMs) in Defence Housing Authority and Bahadurabad and seized a huge quantity of money and ATM cards from them while their five other accomplices escaped on Sunday.

Officials of the police and the Federal Investigation Agency described the Chinese nationals as members of ‘an organised gang’, which had stolen ‘millions of rupees’ from the city.

The DHA police early on Sunday morning received information that about five Chinese men were doing some suspicious activities at an ATM in Phase-II, said Clifton SP Dr Assad Malhi.

The police party rushed to the spot after receiving information and managed to arrest three Chinese while their two accomplices fled, added the officer.

Speaking at a press conference and later talking with Dawn, the Clifton SP said that the police recovered Rs2.3 million, 350 master cards of ATM, which were being used to steal money.

During the initial probe, the held Chinese revealed that they came to Karachi on Jan 11 on a business trip.

The SP claimed that the held foreigners appeared to be a part of an ‘organised gang’ of Chinese nationals who had stolen ‘millions of rupees’ from ATMs.

They told the investigators that this gang hired young men in China to steal cash from ATMs and they were being paid Rs150,000 a month.

In another incident in Bahadurabad, one more Chinese national was arrested, said Karachi-East SSP Dr Samiullah Soomro.

The officer said that the police received a call on Madadgar-15 at around 0615 hours regarding suspected Chinese nationals skimming ATMs of Summit Bank and MCB Bank at Shabbirabad and on Tipu Sultan Road.

“The police party responded within 10 minutes and managed to arrest one Chinese national namely Xu Zhuping and recovered Rs650,000, various amounts of Chinese currency, ATM skimming devices, his ID card and passport and his mobile phone,” said the SSP.

Three suspects escaped in a vehicle.

“CCTV footage is being obtained and further investigation is ongoing,” added the SSP East.

Subsequently, four arrested Chinese nationals were handed over to the FIA for further legal action, said its director of Sindh zone Dr Amir Ahmed Shaikh.

Talking to Dawn the FIA Sindh director said that during past 10 days, six Chinese had been arrested red-handed by police and the FIA.

Sharing initial findings, Dr Shaikh said that two Chinese nationals were arrested on January 10 from HBL on main Abdullah Haroon Road branch near Zainab Market and a case was registered against them.

The FIA seized one ATM skimming machine, some blank ATM cards, one spying camera, one memory card and one MSR machine for fake ATM creation from their possession.

The FIA Sindh head said one USB and some bank ATM cards were also seized from the suspect who was arrested in Bahadurabad while Pakistani currency and blank ATM cards were also recovered from three Chinese who were arrested in Defence.

“With the support of interpreters of Chinese language, further raids are being planned to arrest their accomplices on information of held foreigners,” revealed Dr. Shaikh.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2018