KARACHI: Nazimabad police on Thursday registered a case against unknown suspects over looting of over Rs3.4 million from a private bank on Wednesday afternoon and ruled out the possibility of involvement of militants in the incident, officials said.

The police have registered an FIR on the complaint of the bank management against three suspects who took away Rs3,427,350 from cash counter of Meezan Bank located on the main road in Nazimabad No. 3.

The robbers had resorted to firing before committing the crime, ostensibly to terrorise the employees.

At around 3.30pm on Wednesday, three armed men stormed the bank and snatched a pistol from a security guard posted outside after a scuffle. When they entered the bank a lady staffer tried to flee. One of the armed men resorted to firing and fired shots at the ground apparently to terrorise the employees, said Nazimabad SHO Chaudhry Liaquat.

The officer suspected involvement of a local criminal group in the incident. He believed that from their appearances (as seen in CCTV footage) the armed robbers seemed to belong to different ethnic communities. He ruled out the possibility of involvement of any militant group in the incident.

Another officer, Arshad Abbasi, said that the bank had established a bunker inside its premises. However the guard posted inside the bunker did not challenge the robbers.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2019