Over Rs9m taken away in overnight bank heist

In what appeared to be a novel way of robbing a bank, four bandits on Tuesday stayed on the rooftop of a branch in the SITE area until midnight when they climbed down, held the guards hostage at gunpoint and walked off with local and foreign currency totalling over Rs9 million, officials said on Wednesday.

The police learnt about the bank heist only after sunrise when one of the two guards managed to remove the rope around his hands and called the police helpline 15 to narrate how the armed robbers emptied the lockers inside the SITE area branch of the United Bank Limited within three hours.

The UBL SITE branch robbery is the eight bank heist of the year. At least one bank has been robbed each week for the past three weeks.

"The branch is located near Habib Bank Chowrangi in the SITE area," said Inspector Zawwar Hussain, the SHO of the


SITE-A police station.

"The two guards on the night shift were sleeping inside the branch when they were woken up at around 2am and held hostage by the four armed men. We as well as the branch management believe that the bandits were staying on the rooftop, which has an access to the branch on the ground floor through the stairs."

He said some construction work had been under way on the first floor of the building for the past few weeks. The branch had a common entrance for labourers, visitors and bank staff, he added.

"So we have reason to believe that the four armed men got an access to the first floor through that entrance and then moved to the rooftop during banking hours or earlier in the day. Then they waited there till late night and came downstairs at around 2am. They held the two private security guards hostage, tied them up and then moved forward," the inspector said.

The police found the bank lockers badly damaged and suspected that the bandits used every possible way to break them open. They quoted the two private security guards as saying that the four armed men took nearly two hours to break open the lockers.

"They collected a total of Rs9.6 million from the lockers," said DSP Zahid Hussain, the sub-divisional police officer of the area.

"It included Rs6.6 million and also thousands of US dollars worth three million rupees. They took their time and made sure that no evidence was left behind by taking away the recording system connected with the CCTV (closed-circuit television) cameras."

The police said the armed bandits carrying 'small weapons' or pistols had not covered their faces.

While the officials ruled out the possibility of the guards' involvement in the robbery, they suspected 'someone within the branch' who made the robbers aware of the bank installations and provided key information.

"The bandits were aware of the security system installed inside the branch. They first moved to the alarm system to deactivate it, disconnect the CCTV recording system before seizing the equipment and they also knew the exact location of the lockers," said Inspector Hussain.

"As we have connected the dots, we suspect someone's role within the branch - either bank staff or someone close to the branch's regulation operation."

The police later registered a case (FIR 439/2011) under Sections 392 (punishment for robbery), 393 (attempt to commit robbery), 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery) 395 (punishment for dacoity) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code against unknown suspects on a complaint of the branch manager.