PESHAWAR, Feb 16: Armed robbers looted Rs9.1 million from a private bank in broad daylight at busy Dabgari Garden area of the provincial metropolis on Thursday.

Mohammad Ali, the manager of United Bank branch, told police that he was on duty when four masked men entered the building, held the staff at gunpoint and looted Rs9.1million at about 9am.

He said that all staff members were busy in routine work when robbers entered the bank, held them hostage and started collecting cash from the counter and strong room.

Another source said that robbers thrashed the security guard and snatched his rifle. “They (robbers) also took away the close circuit cameras with them,” he added.

However, police said that robbers didn’t take away close circuit cameras with them. They destroyed the footages, they added.

The source said that the bank was robbed for the second time during the last three years. He added that robbers had taken away over Rs5 million from the same branch in 2009. “The robbers involved in the previous incident have not been arrested so far,” he added.

Meanwhile, smuggled medicines, surgical equipment and cloth worth Rs300 million were recovered from 19 godowns during raids, conducted by district coordination officer here on Thursday.

A press release said that watchmen of warehouses identified as Mohammad Talib, Rafiq, Lal Mir and Shams Masood were arrested during the raids and handed over to police.

It merits a mention here that most of the medicines, surgical equipment and non-food items were donated by European countries for the flood victims after conducting necessary survey in the entire Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Sources said that after changing expiry date on the medicines, the same were dispatched to Afghanistan and various parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They said that the medicines and surgical equipment were also sent to Rajanpur and Sahiwal.