TAXILA, Oct 5: Some 10 heavily armed robbers went on a looting spree in the jewelry section of Wah Cantonment's main business centre Lala Rukh on Wednesday evening and fled with their loot of gold and cash worth Rs15 million.

It was the biggest robbery in the history of the garrison city.

The looted shopkeepers told Dawn that the robbers sneaked into the market and then dramatically raided the jewelry shops around 7 pm. They took eight shop owners hostage and held them at gunpoint.

They grabbed the jewelry items, cash and cell phones from them and fled away successfully with booty by rampant aerial firing. As they fled, they also snatched a motorcycle and a car from the passers-by.

It may be mentioned here that Rescue 15 centre and police station Lalarukh are located few yards away from the crime scene.

On getting information, a heavy contingent of the police reached the spot and cordoned off the area launching a search operation. No clue of the armed bandits or snatched vehicles was traced till filing of the news.

According to independent sources, this is the biggest ever robbery in the history of the city. The jeweler community of the city announced three day strike from Thursday to protest against the incident.

Our Staff Reporter adds from Rawalpindi:

Some unidentified burglars broke into the house of a local trader in Yousaf colony in the limits of Airport Police station and escaped with cash and gold jewellery valuing about Rs1 million, the victim said.

Faqeer Muhammad, a resident of Yousaf Colony near Chaklala Scheme-III, lodged a complaint with Gulraiz Police post that he and his family had gone to see one of his relatives in Attock.

The burglary came to light after the daughter of Faqeer Muhammad came to his house and found the locks of the house broken and households scattered inside.

She said, “I was shocked to see the doors of my father's house broken and households scattered room after room.” Later, her husband called the local police, who took a considerable time to reach the scene of crime they alleged.

Faqeer Muhammad had to rush back to his looted house after receiving call from his daughter. On his return, he found the locks of his room and cupboard broken; cash and jewellery including six bangles of gold, rings and necklaces were stolen.