PESHAWAR, April 11: The city police have busted a network of car-lifters and arrested four people, including a police official, in the last couple of days from different localities of the city.

The SSP, investigations, Akhtar Hayat Gandapur, said this at a press conference, held at the Police Headquarters on Thursday.

The SSP said the anti-car lifting cell (ACLC) had been tipped off about a network of car-lifters, who purchased expensive stolen vehicles from tribal areas and sold them to the people of posh areas of the city.

The police arrested three alleged car-lifters, named as Khalid Khan, resident of Budhni; Fazlur Rehman alias Gulalay, resident of Hazarkhani; Rais Khan, resident of Bara; and the ring leader, Iftikhar Rauf, of Gulbahar Colony. Rauf owns a car showroom on The Mall, is stated to be a junior clerk in the police lines.

During investigations, the car-lifters confessed having sold a 2000-model Honda Civic stolen car with fake documents to Abdul Jalil, a resident of Gulbahar; a 2000-model Honda Civic to Noor Mohammad; a 2001-model Toyota Corolla to a doctor; another Toyota Corolla to a jeweller, Abdul Jabbar; and two other cars.

All the cars were hijacked or stolen in Karachi and brought to the tribal areas, where their fake documents were prepared.