The station house officer of the North Nazimabad police station said they had arrested Zafar and Riaz Kala from Block B. Two TT pistols were seized from them.

SHO Salman Waheed said that police had obtained the photographs of the rest of their associates involved in house robberies and street crime.

The other suspects are: police constable Zaheer, Ashoke, Yousuf, Javed, Obaid, Irfan, Khalid, Anwer, Moin and Iqbal.

He said two of the complainants, Muhammad Younus of Block J and Tanveer of Block H, North Naziamabad, had identified the suspects and had lodged separate FIRs against them. The same gang had carried out robberies in their houses in 2002, the SHO said.

He said eight complainants had identified the suspects, but two of them cam forward to lodge FIRs.

Explaining their method of operation, Inspector Salman said initially their associate women worked at bungalows as maids for a month or so.

They provided information about the households to the gang and they carried out dacoities.

In almost all the holdups the gang barged in the targeted house during daytime when male members of the family were away at work, the SHO said.

He said Zafar provided accommodation to the `maids’ in Kauser Niazi Colony. Zafar along with the maids had disposed of several sets of jewellery in the jewellers’ market at Paposhnagar. They posed themselves as couple.

Citing their recent robberies, the SHO said that they had carried out a house robbery in Malir and another in Kharadar.