MARDAN, June 10: More than 300 account-holders of a bank have demanded return of their money.

The account-holders who had gathered in front of the Islamic Investment Bank’s branch on the Mall said they had opened accounts in the bank as they had been promised high returns on their deposits.

Some 30 months ago bank authorities stopped paying them interest and when they demanded that their principal amount be returned, they were told that the

National Accountability Bureau had unearthed a fraud in the bank and the account-holders should wait till the disposal of the case.

The account holders said that the bank, despite operating under a licence from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, turned out to be a fraud, which deprived the poor people of Rs30 million deposited in their Mardan branch.

They claimed that the fraud was discovered when a senior official of the Supreme Court of Pakistan deposited Rs400 million belonging to the SCP in his personal account.

When the Supreme Court of Pakistan demanded the amount back, the bank refused to return the amount because the money had already been misappropriated by the bank authorities, they said.