LAHORE, March 5: A gang involved in defrauding banks and financial institutions has been busted by the FIA.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Commercial Banks Circle deputy director M. Aqil Usman said financial institutions, especially the National Bank, had been the main target of the gang. It was operating for the last some years and had made successful strikes in Islamabad and Karachi.

Mr Usman said the gang created stir when its members attempted a fraud worth Rs150 million in the main NBP branch in Islamabad about four months ago. They had almost succeeded had a bank officer not got suspicious about the deal. None of the gang members was caught at that time, he added.

From Islamabad, Mr Usman said, evidence was collected and the FIA found that the gang had defrauded a bank in Karachi of Rs20 million last year. Evidence to more such frauds committed by the gang in other cities was found during investigation.

The gang comprised bank officers and criminals reportedly belonging to the MQM(A). The team probing the matter started receiving murder threats when it came close to them about two months ago, he added.

However, Mr Usman said intelligence wing of the team got information that the gang was going to commit a fraud of Rs50 million in the main NBP branch of Lahore. Coordination was made with the bank high-ups and they were asked to give assurance to the gang members that the cash demanded by them was ready for disbursement, he said. The bank received a mail transfer (MT) of Rs49 million a few days ago.

He said the FIA men acted as bank officers and dealt with the gang members. One Abdul Rehman was caught when he was operating the MT with a fake name of Asim Shahzad.

A Karachi officer Zafar Hashmi and one Sagheer Ali, who were waiting for Rehman outside the bank, were also taken into custody, he said, claiming that both the men turned out to be activists of the MQM(A).

He said it was found from the documents submitted by the gang members to the bank that two noted businessmen of Lahore, Malik Nasim and Mian Ishfaq, were acting as local collaborators of the gang. They had secured bail before arrest, he added.

The three arrested men told investigators that two executive officers of the NBP, Arshad Ali, who is believed to be an expert in preparing fake MTs, and Tatheer Ali, besides three others, yet to be identified, were also their gang members. One Zahid Islam of Karachi who had been involved in such frauds in the past had also been working for them, Mr Usman said.

He claimed that the gang members were expert in telegraphic transfer, mail transfer, operating accounts of people by preparing fake cheques and stealing traveller’s cheques. They even used codes of different banks.