KARACHI, Sept 27: The arrest of two policemen in the early hours of Thursday for their involvement in armed robbery shows that some of the guardians of the law have become so bold as to carry out hold-ups on their official Honda motorcycles.
On Sept 25, businessman Malick Omar Din’s nephew Saqib Zaheer visited MCB’s Tariq Road branch and withdrew Rs700,000. As he drove towards his Clifton office, he noticed that he was being followed by a motorcycle and a rickshaw. Mr Zaheer attempted to speed away but his assailants displayed a pistol. Panic-stricken, he headed to his PECHS office, which was closer, and hurriedly parked the car, telling the watchman to close the gates. Before they could do so, however, the armed men entered the premises after roughing up the watchman.
“Saquib hid most of the cash in the office and kept one packet containing Rs100,000 with him,” Malick Omar Din told Dawn. “He handed this over when the robbers caught up with him and demanded the cash, but they asked for the rest of the money.” Following threats that the office’s occupants would be killed, Saquib surrendered and handed over the full sum.
Shortly afterwards, the complainants Mr Zaheer and Mr Din, along with their watchman, went to the Ferozabad police station to lodge an FIR. The two complainants were in the reporting room and their watchman was outside when two men on a motorcycle entered the police station and went to the head moharrir. As they left, the gaze of the watchman and one of the men on the motorcycle locked: the latter was one of the men who had committed the robbery.
The watchman ran into the reporting room and as he raised the alarm, policemen closed the gate of the station. “By that time, however, the suspects had sped away,” said Mr Din, “although our watchman noted the white motorcycle’s registration number — HM-825.”
Mr Din told Dawn that the station house officer refused to register an FIR emphasising the fact that the suspects had access to the police station. Furthermore, he said, “the SHO tried to record the registration number down as 8025 and argued that this was the number we had furnished.”
After employing contacts and applying pressure from high-ups, the complainants were able to get the FIR (752/07) registered under Section 392 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which pertains to punishment for robbery.
Mr Din said that through efforts made by him and not the police, the motorcycle was traced as having been issued to the police welfare department. Through the vehicle, police constable Sajjad and ASI Farooq Ahmed were identified as the suspects.
Constable Sajjad returned to the Ferozabad police station after shaving his beard and dyeing his hair, verified by other staff members who confirmed that his appearance had been different a day earlier. Nevertheless, he was identified positively by Mr Zaheer and his watchman.
ASI Ahmed tried to extricate himself by using connections with the DSP Bahadurabad and a certain political party. However, he was advised to surrender and did so at the Ferozabad police station late Wednesday night.
Currently, both the suspected officials are under custody at the Ferozabad police station.
It seems that having proved unable to beat the armed robbers roaming the city streets, some policemen have decided to join them.
