LAHORE, Jan 22: Police claimed to have arrested four members of a five-man gang who snatched cars of a specific model.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday at the Ichhra police station, Lahore SSP Aftab Cheema claimed that the gang has been operating in many cities of the Punjab for the last some months.

Toyota 2D was their favourite car, though they also drove away with other vehicles, he claimed.

He said several teams of police, CIA and its anti-car lifting staff had been deputed to trace the criminals. Model Town SP Aftab Ejaz succeeded in finding a clue which ultimately led to the arrest of car snatchers, he said.

SSP Cheema said a man whose car had been snatched also claimed that the criminals had also taken away a bag from him which contained some of his personal documents.

He said the carjackers contacted the complainant by phone and asked him to pick up the bag from the roof of a house on Lytton Road. He informed the SP who deputed Ichhra police to follow up the tip.

A police team visited the house and found the bag lying there, he said and added that it took about a month to trace one of the gang members by continuously keeping vigil of the house.

They arrested one Muhammad Khalil alias Amir who turned out to be the ring leader of the gang. On his identification, his gang members Tanvir Husain, Ehsan alias Nadeem and Manshaullah were arrested. The fifth member, Ghulam Kabir alias Kala Khan, was still at large, the SSP added.

He said Mansha had been working with another gang and parted way when he had differences with its ring leader, Mazhar. Mansha joined Khalil and started stealing cars some months ago.

Mansha and Khalil were the planners who briefed other members by cell phone. The gang always struck between 7am and 9am, usually after chasing people from their houses.

SSP Cheema claimed that they had helped police solve 26 cases of car-snatching and robberies, most of which took place in Lahore and some other committed in other cities of the province. Four stolen cars have so far been recovered from their custody and more recoveries were expected in a couple of days.

Besides, he said, four pistols, a rifle and 32 bullets were also recovered from their possession.

Further investigation are underway.