CHITRAL: The Lower Chitral police have arrested the ringleader of an organised burglars’ gang.

Addressing a news conference here on Saturday, SP investigations Attiqur Rehman and sub-divisional police officer Sajjad Hussain said that the gang members burgled the houses at night in different localities of Chitral city and Drosh town during the last one month.

He said busting the gang had become a challenge for the police as the burglars proved too elusive to be traced.

They said that the police pursued the culprits by deploying more than 300 personnel on night patrol and using scientific gadgets. He said the police spotted a suspect by closely observing his daily movements in the CCTV cameras and followed him into a hotel.

They said the suspect proved to be the gang leader of the burglars, who was a resident of Timergara (Lower Dir), and was wanted to police in both Lower and Upper Dir in a number of heinous cases.

The police officers said the gangster named Jihad Khan used five national identity cards of different districts with different names, and also used a social media platform to contact his accomplices, thereby making it difficult to trace him.

The police officers said almost 100 per cent stolen goods had been recovered from the possession of the burglars’ ring leader, including gold ornaments, cash, laptops, arms, electric appliances and beds.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2025