RAWALPINDI: More than 9,600 textbooks, which were to be provided to students by the Punjab government and had been stolen from the well-guarded Directorate of Education on Murree Road, have been recovered by the police.

Two individuals—a junk dealer who purchased the stolen textbooks and another person involved in the theft—were detained with the help of Safe City cameras, the Rawalpindi police said.

However, the security guard of the Directorate of Education has been missing since the textbooks were stolen.

The value of the stolen textbooks was estimated at Rs500,000, but they were sold to the junk dealer for only Rs170,000 by the alleged suspect. The junk dealer and his accomplice were arrested and remain in police custody on a two-day remand.

Sub-Inspector Irfan Riaz, who is leading the investigation, revealed that both the buyer and seller of the stolen books have been detained. He added that raids are underway to arrest their other accomplices.

The police officer said the theft from the Directorate of Education began at 1:30am and continued until dawn.

A senior official from the directorate told Dawn that all 9,665 textbooks had been recovered by the police.

He added that shortly after the theft was discovered, an internal inquiry was launched and eventually an FIR was registered at the City Police Station.

“Police have recovered all the stolen textbooks; however, the security guard who was on duty at the time has been missing since the incident,” he said.

The Punjab government provides free textbooks to students in public schools under the Punjab Education Sector Reforms Programme (PESRP) since 2004.

Naveedul Haq, District Education Officer (Literacy) Rawalpindi, lodged the FIR at the City Police Station, stating that 9,665 textbooks stored at the Education Directorate were stolen during the night between May 2 and May 3, 2025.

He said that following a departmental inquiry, a C-IV employee, had been assigned to guard the assets. The market value of the textbooks was estimated at Rs500,000.

After the FIR was registered, police launched an investigation and took two suspects into custody. They later confessed to stealing the textbooks.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2025