Five armed robbers looted gold ornaments, cash and other valuables worth Rs 15 million from a house in the Shadman Police precincts on Wednesday.
According to details, five armed robbers equipped with sophisticated weapons knocked the door of a businessman, Sheikh Arif Hafeez, a resident of Shadman area. Arif’s wife opened the door and the robbers took her hostage at gunpoint and barged into the house. They made Arif, his wife, son Kashif and his wife and children hostages as well and later thrashed Kashif and locked the entire family in one room to search the house.
The robbers thoroughly searched the house and collected valuables including gold ornaments weighing 175 tolas, Rs 0.13 million in cash, two UPSs and other valuables and safely escaped after the robbery. The victims informed police about the mishap, which reached the spot under the supervision of Model Town Operations and Investigation Superintendent of Police (SP) and CIA Superintendent of Police Umer Virak. Police collected circumstantial evidences, including fingerprints and eyewitness accounts, and collected information about how the robbers looked.
The Shadman Police later registered a case on Kashif’s complaint and started probing into the matter. Model Town SP Awais said that a gang of robbers was operating in Model Town for a few weeks. He said that police gathered all available circumstantial evidence from the spot besides registering a case and would arrest the perpetrators soon. Awais said that the robbers were wearing masks so nobody knew how they looked.
Kashif, while narrating incident, said that four robbers came inside the house and one remained outside to keep a lookout. He said that robbers entered the house at about 12:15pm and remained there for about 15 minutes. A close relative of Arif, Tauqeer said that the robbers were wearing shalwar qameez, were clean shaved and between 25 to 26 years of age. To a question, he said that Sheikh Arif Hafeez was a businessman who ran a chemicals’ business at Akbari Gate Market. Tauqeer said that Arif did not believe in depositing his valuables at any bank and kept it at home. He held the Model Town SP responsible for the robbery and said that the SP lacked the skills to manage the most important division of Lahore Police. Tauqeer said this was not the first robbery incident which had taken place in Model Town Police precincts. He said it was the fourth or fifth robbery of the same nature in which robbers had targeted rich people at their houses and fled successfully.
