RAWALPINDI: A three-member gang of robbers allegedly deprived a trader of Rs916,000 cash in daylight on Sunday in Shamsabad and escaped.

Asim Shahzad Abbasi complained to the police that he was sitting in his shop and counting cash collected from members of a locally-managed saving scheme, called Committee, when all of a sudden three unidentified persons armed with pistols and wearing helmets entered his shop and held him at pistol point.

He said that the gunmen snatched Rs800,000 from him and collected Rs100,000 from the cash box. He said the robbers also did his body search and grabbed his purse containing Rs16,000. He said that they also used abusive language while leaving the shop.

Mr Abbasi said that as the robbers fled he called the emergency police ‘15’ and informed them about the incident. He told the police that he had the video footage of the robbery recorded in CCTV camera, which was installed at his shop.

Separately, an intending pilgrim was allegedly caught with 10.632 kilogrammes of ice heroin while boarding a Haj flight at the Islamabad International Airport on Saturday.

According to the security officials, the seizure was made by the Airport Security Force staff when security check of passengers for the flight was in progress at the airport.

They said the ASF staff got suspicious on seeing a passenger, identified as Mohammad Shahzad, carrying 12 bottles of squash with him. They said the ASF staff detained the intending pilgrim who was also wearing Ahram and during search found 10.632kg of ice heroin preserved in liquid form in the squash bottles.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2019