KARACHI, Feb 2: The Anti-car Lifting Cell (ACLC) smashed three gangs of car lifters and seized 415 vehicles – 198 cars and 217 motorcycles – during the first month of the current year.

Police said a ring leader was injured and arrested by the ACLC staff early last month after a shootout near a graveyard in Khawaja Ajmair Nagri police where he had set up a workshop to tamper with the engine and chassis numbers of the stolen and snatched vehicles.

The raiding party also seized a punching machine, fake vehicle registration books and an unlicensed pistol of the suspect, identified as Munir Niazi.

The police said the suspect was wanted in over 20 cases of carjacking, took the stolen vehicles to Turbat.

The ACLC chief, SSP Abdul Khaliq Shaikh, told Dawn that the suspect’s bank account in Karachi showed transactions of over Rs12.5 million in the past one year.

He said incidents of vehicle lifting showed a decreasing trend due to the improved performance of the ACLC. He said “533 cars were taken away in November 2006 and 472 in December 2006, while 361 cars were lifted in January this year.”

The ACLC arrested 61 suspected car thieves during January and seized 198 cars and 217 motorcycles from them.