KARACHI: A police officer instrumental in killing the suspected ringleader of an Afghan gang of robbers has received a threatening call from someone using a cellular number of Afghanistan, officials said on Wednesday.

Darakhshan SHO Aurangzeb Khattak was threatened with dire consequences over mobile phone by a caller using Afghan SIM, said Karachi South Zone DIG Azad Khan.

The caller also asked the SHO to release two suspects who had been taken into custody following a police encounter in which their ringleader was shot dead.

The DIG said that the police were trying to trace the caller to know whether he was based here or in the neighbouring country.

On March 1, the police had claimed to have killed the ringleader of a gang of robbers comprising Afghans in Nazimabad. The police also arrested two of the gang members, who had confessed to their involvement in over 100 house robberies during the past three years.

According to Clifton SP Tauqeer Muhammad Naeem, acting on a tip-off about the presence of some robbers in Defence Phase II, a police team led by Darakhshan SHO Khattak carried out a raid there. However, the suspects managed to escape.

Using latest technology, the police team later traced the same robbers in Block-4 of Nazimabad. They were fleeing after a house robbery. When the police surrounded the fleeing robbers, they entered a home and started firing on the police. During an exchange of gunfire, one of them, later identified as Afghan national Abdul Bari, died while his two accomplices, Gorjan and Mohammed Hussain, were arrested, said the Clifton SP.

Four of their accomplices — later identified as Jilani, Mohammed Hussain, Khalid alias Shahzad and Chagal Bari — managed to escape from the crime scene. The police seized three pistols, looted gold ornaments, Rs500,000, two motorcycles and equipment used in breaking locks from their custody.

“This gang of robbers had been active in the city’s posh areas for the past three years and they had committed over 100 house robberies,” the SP said.

The gang comprised 15-20 members hailing from Afghanistan and Bari was their ringleader. After committing robberies, the suspects tended to go to Quetta and Afghanistan.

Two suspects of the same gang — Nazar Mohammed and Kamran — were already arrested on Jan 13 in Defence. They had ‘confessed’ to their involvement in dozens of house robberies in Defence, Clifton, Nazimabad, Ferozabad, Bahadurabad, Gulshan-i-Hadeed, Hawkesbay, Tipu Sultan and PECHS areas.

“They had also committed a robbery at the house of former president of Kati [Karachi Association of Trade and Industry] Fazal Jalil in Ferozabad in which cash and other valuables worth millions of rupees were looted.”

“This gang had become a headache for the Karachi police since last three years,” said the Clifton SP.

Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police A.D. Khowaja had announced a Rs200,000 cash reward for the police team.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2018