BAHAWALPUR, Feb 10: Railway police claimed to have arrested the main accused involved in Rs30.61 million robbery late Thursday night from Garden Town here.

A railway police constable posted at Moghalpura workshops in Lahore, Riaz, was reportedly hiding in a house in the locality.

It was learnt on Friday that a railway police team headed by the Moghalpura SP raided the house on receiving secret information and arrested Riaz. They claimed recovery of millions of rupees from his possession.

The police were conducting raids to arrest accomplices of Riaz.

Riaz, it is learnt, left Lahore after committing robbery and reached here. He purchased a double storey house worth Rs2.5 million. He paid Rs700,000 in advance and occupied the house. He promised to pay the remaining amount to owner Chaudhry Nadeem on Feb 26.

A highly placed police source, while confirming the arrest of Riaz, declined to give details of the police action.

Riaz and his accomplices, on the occasion of Eidul Fitr, robbed Rs30.61 million brought to the railway workshops for payment of salaries to around 5,000 staff members.

ACCIDENT: Three people were killed while two others sustained injuries, one of them serious, in accidents here on Friday.

Hasnain Raza, 20, and Syed Sajid Shah, 25, were killed while Mazhar and Asif suffered injuries when a speeding NLC trailer hit their motorcycles at Jalalpur Chowk.

Imtiaz was crushed by a speeding truck near Sutlej river bridge.

PROTEST: The MMA and Bahawalpur Press Club held two separate rallies in protest against the publication of blasphemous cartoons in the newspapers of Denmark and other European countries after Friday prayers.

The MMA took out a rally from historic Al-Sadiq Mosque and marched up to Farid Gate. Deputy parliamentary leader in Punjab Assembly Dr Syed Wasim Akhtar addressed the participants.

Journalists took out their rally from the club and marched up to old university campus chowk. The participants carried banners and raised slogans against the US and European countries.

UNCLAIMED LUGGAGE: Pakistan Railways announced on Friday that the luggage of the passengers of Karakoram Express which derailed on Feb 4 near Sammsatta, has been piled up at the local railway parcel office as unclaimed baggage.

The authorities have appealed to the people to collect their articles from chief parcel office Naeem Khan Khakwani at Bahawalpur railway station.

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