LAHORE: From over three dozen cases of robbery and theft that were reported on Jan 4 from various parts of the city, the Lahore police only managed to solve the robbery case at the residence of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s nephew, and that too within 48 hours.

Out of the three suspects arrested in the case, two were brothers -- Mahmood and Kazim -- and residents of Marl village in Ferozewala. Their third accomplice – Fahad -- was a friend and resided in Mian Mir Colony.

The father of the brothers worked as a driver at a residence in Zaman Park and police picked him up for questioning. Police first arrested the brothers and then their accomplice from Cantonment, a police official told Dawn.

The same day, five house robberies, 15 street crimes and motorcycle and car snatchings were reported from various parts of the city. However, police only traced the case of PM’s nephew, Shershah Khan, with no progress in any of the other incidents, the police official said.

Of three dozen robberies, thefts reported same day, none other solved

Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Zulfiqar Hameed told the media about the breakthrough in the case in a press conference on Monday.

According to the first information repot lodged on the complaint of Shershah Khan on Saturday, three unidentified armed men entered his house on Upper Mall early morning by scaling the boundary walls. His wife and daughter were alone at that time. The suspects held his wife hostage, looted an expensive mobile phone, eight gold bangles, cash and a pistol worth over Rs1.1 million and fled from the scene.

Mr Khan further stated in the FIR that the suspects also forced his wife to issue a cheque of Rs3m.

Another police official said several teams had been deputed on roads around the city besides deputing plainclothes personnel at some branches of the bank the cheque belonged to. He said a joint team of the CIA and investigation wing was working separately to resolve the case.

The police had also alerted the senior management of the bank concerned about the possibility of encashment of the cheque from any of their branches.

Cantt Superintendent of Police (Investigation) Mian Ijaz Rasheed said: “We traced the location and hideouts of the criminals… on the basis of secret information.”

Of the three involved, he said, Mahmood was a hardened criminal and involved in 21 similar heinous crime incidents. His brother Kazim was involved in six, while this was Fahad’s second crime. The SP claimed that all three suspects were unaware of the family they were robbing.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2020