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KARACHI, Oct 13: Despite police claims to have busted what they describe as one of the most active gangs involved in the armed robbery of passengers returning from the airport, at least three to four such gangs continue to operate in the city, Dawn has learnt.
Interestingly enough, none of the hold-ups have occurred within the jurisdiction of the airport police station — the gangs strike at their targets’ doorstep. The records of the airport police station show that only three FIRs pertaining to armed hold-up under Section 392 of the Pakistan Penal Code were lodged between January and August, 2007. Conversely, at the adjacent Sharea Faisal police station, 87 FIRs – of which a substantial number were in context of the airport gangs – were registered during the same period.
In July this year, the police apprehended a suspect identified as Kashif Bandhani and an accomplice. The police recovered a pistol and a police uniform from the suspect’s car bearing the number plate AGK-794.
Randomly selected targets
The DSP of the airport police, Haseeb Baig, described Bandhani as a notorious ringleader of the gangs involved in armed robbery of airport passengers. “He has confessed to 12 such cases,” said DSP Baig, adding that all these hold-ups were committed at the doorsteps of passengers returning from abroad.
Referring to the suspect’s modus operandi, the officer said that Bandhani used to rent a car of a recent model without a CNG option. He would fill the tank up with hi-octane and as a result, he escaped arrest on three occasions because the police could simply not match the speed of his car.
According to DSP Baig, the accused man used to select his targets at random by patrolling Sharea Faisal from Natha Bridge to Jinnah Terminal from 3am onwards. Any airport taxi loaded with luggage on the carrier would be a potential target. There is usually no movement of police mobiles between 3am and 5am, least of all on Sharea Faisal.
Armed robberies conducted in this manner are reported throughout the year but a surge is usually witnessed during the month of Ramzan. Last year was no different and subsequently, the DIG Operations constituted a special task force in 2006 to bust the airport gangs. The special cell was headed by an SP and included an ASP, a DSP and six station house officers (SHOs) of police stations near the airport who started work from the 15th of Ramzan last year.
According to DSP Baig, who was part of the task force, the team started patrolling the entire area throughout the night and even discreetly followed some passengers to their homes in the hope that a gang would strike, but that did not happen. The task force was well-armed since it had information that the criminals used pistols as well as AK-47 rifles. However, they did not manage to intercept a robbery in progress over the next 15 days.
An average of 300 passengers arrive at the Quaid-e-Azam International Airport every night and any one of them can be picked at random by the criminals, said the police.
They added that during interrogation, Bandhani said that he did not think it wise to have an informant inside the airport when the entire operation could be conducted from Sharea Faisal. However, the driver of a radio cab told Dawn that there was some sort of nexus between some of the airport porters and the criminals. He believed that information about a passenger is passed on after his luggage has been assessed. Nevertheless, the police have not been able to establish such a link during the course of investigations into the arrested suspects.
