MANSEHRA, Feb 27: Police claimed to have arrested three members of a gang, involved in bank robberies, car-lifting and kidnapping for ransom in Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

Police raided a house in Kangar area on a tip-off and arrested an outlaw identified as Aftab Shah alias Chan Peer, District Police Officer Sohail Khalid told a press conference here on Sunday.

He said that the raiding party also recovered a repeater gun and Rs700,000 from the possession of arrested outlaw.

Two other members of the gang identified as Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Saleem were also arrested and an amount of Rs800,000 was recovered from their possession, he added.

The DPO said that the arrested persons had looted Rs3.6 million from a bank in Mansehra on February 17. Besides cash, a huge cache of arms and ammunition was also recovered from the gangsters, he added.

He said that police were trying to apprehend other members of the inter-provincial gang.

He said that the gang was also wanted in kidnapping for ransom, car-lifting and bank robberies in Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

He said that two stolen cars were also recovered from their possession. UPREST IN LIBYA:

The prevailing unrest in Libya is feared to affect $25 million development projects at New Balakot City.

Work on a mosque, started on October 9, 2010, has been suspended for the last couple of days as engineers and workers of a Turkish firm have left area for Islamabad.

An official said that that work on projects worth $25 million would be affected at the New Balakot City owing to riots in Libya.

Qadhafi Development Charity Foundation, which is run by Dr Saiful Islam Qadhafi, the son of President Muammer Qadhafi, had laid the foundation of a mosque at the new housing project on October 9 last year. The mosque is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2011 with an amount of Rs400 million.

The foundation would construct a mosque, two degree colleges, six primary schools, a hospital and a shopping mall at New Balakot City.