Mirpur police busts 5-member inter-provincial dacoits’ band

Altaf Hamid Rao,

MIRPUR (AJK): Mirpur AJK police have busted a 05-member inter-provincial band of dacoits and burglars by arresting all of the accused besides recovering the stolen property including 2785 of British Pounds, gold jewelry, cells phones, besides huge cache of illicit arms from the custody of the arrested accused.

Disclosing this Senior Superintendent of Police Mirpur Raja Urfan Salim told this Correspondent here On Thursday to that the police also rounded up a total of 106 accused wanted to the police in about 73 cases of illicit drug and arms trafficking in various parts of the district during about a couple of months.

The district police chief continued that after he took over the charge of the office about a week ago, the police intensified a campaign and succeeded in unearthing and arresting the bandits belonging to separate inter-provincial and local gangs of the bandits involved in various dacoity, burglary, theft and illicit arms and drug-trafficking cases.

The arrested accused were identified as Muhammad Nazir allias Mehdi son of khushi Muhammad r/o Khariyaan District Gujrat, his son Muhammad Owais r/o same town, Ameer Mukhtar s/o Malkhoo r/o village Kuloowall of District Sargodha, Shamas Iqbal s/o Muhammad Iqbal r/o Gujjar Khan, and Imran s/o Muhammad Ramzan of Noorpur District Khushaab.

The SSP said that preliminary interrogation of the arrested accused revealed their involvement in murder of five persons besides in 30 cases of dacoities and 20 cases of burglary. The terrible cases of the serious offences included assassination of four persons during e a dacoity in Mirpur besides 13 other dacoity and 10 cases of burglary in Mirpur division including the dacoity case at the hokuse of the daughter of AJK minister for electricity Raja Nisaar Ahmed in Kotli district.

Besides four other cases of dacoity and burglary, the accused also confessed of committing the heinous crimes including a murder and 13 dacoity and 08 number of theft cases in Jhelum, Gujrat, Chakwaal, Rawalpindi, Sargodha and Khushaab districts, the SSP said.

Raja Urfan Salim further told that police also recovered and confiscated the stolen goods worth over Rs. 60.45 lakh from the custody of 30 other accused belonging to seven other gangs of burglars, thieves and other anti-social elements.

He said that police also unearthed a famous case of theft in a local foam manufacturing unit – from where the accused had removed the machinery worth over Rs. 20 million. Police nabbed all the five accused involved in the incident.

Irfan Salim continued that the accused were also found involved in five other cases of holding illicit arms, abduction and attempt of murders including a recent incident of armed daoity at the house of one Raja Zaraafat in Dadayal town of Mirpur district last month.

The SSP said that a special police team comprising seasoned CoPs led by Sub Inspector Waseem Nawaz, SHO New City was constituted, which netted the most-wanted the accused through the surprise raids.

He underlined that the nabbed ring leader of the alleged dacoits band namely Nazeer Allia Mehdi was arrested from the jurisdiction of Afzalpur police sations for having been involved in murder and dacoity like heinous crimes in the year of 2003. He added that the accused had earlier been arrested in year of 2008. After having been released on bail from the courts of law, the accused resumed committing heinous crimes like dacoity and burglaries including the dacoity at the house of the daughter of sitting AJK Power minister Raja Nisaar Ahmed in Khuiratta town of Kotli district on May 22, this year. Flanked by the accomplices, he accused had fled away with the looted money of Rs. 0.04 million besides gold ornaments and a mobile phone from the house of the minister’s daughter, the SSP said.

The District police chief underlined that the accused also committed 10 dacoity and burglaries during last couple of months in Dadyal, Chakswari, Islamgarh and Afzalpur premies.

Further investigations are in progress to recover more stolen goods from the cusody of the accused.

To a question, the SSP said that Mirpur district is a peaceful area. The police will leave no stone unturned to ensure the safety of life and property of the citizens. He sought the continuation of due cooperation of masses and the media to the police to unearth the anti-social elements primarily for the sake of elimination of crimes and criminals from their roots.

Further investigations are in progress to prepare challans for onward submitting to the concerned courts of law for further legal proceeding, he concluded