Altaf Hamid Rao.
Police nabbed all the bandits wanted in HBL Ratta Br. Dacoity case,
DADAYAL/ (MIRPUR-AJK),(Parliament Times) : Dadayal (Mirpur-AJK) police succeeded in unearthing and arresting a 9-member inter-provincial dacoits band, including the ring leader – by recovering the whole looted money and arms, exactly within one month after the incident of broad-day dacoity in a bank in Ratta town of Dadyal sub division of Mirpur, Azad Jammu Kashmir on Wednesday, police said.
Disclosing this, Senior Superintendent of Police Raja Irfan Saleem told an emergent crowded news conference in Dadayal town in this district on Tuesday that police have recovered the stolen money of over Rs. 1.80 million, the illicit arms including a Kalashnikov, 05 pistals, 02 cars and 02 motorbikes, allegedly used during the offense, from the custody of the arrested accused.
Elaborating, the district police chief said that five armed bandits stormed into Ratta (Dadayal) Branch of Habib Bank Ltd at 10.40 am on April 19 this year and looted cash money of Rs. 2.01 million by making the bank staffers hostage and escaped with the 12-bore pump action rifle, snatched from the guard of the bank branch, at gun point.
The SSP Irfan Saleem continued that after the year of 2013, it was the only major incident of the bank dacoity in Mirpur district, which was big challenge for the local police. He said that police succeeded in unearthing this mysterious dacoity through use of latest means and professional skills used by the technical branch of the local police who arrested all the nine accused involved in the offense identified as the ring leader Muhammad Farooq s/o Muhammad Shaffi Jatt, r/o Khairowal (Chamb), Bashara Husssain Chatoo s/o Muhammad Hussain r/o New Afzalpur, (currently serving in Kotli-AJK University), Gulraiz Khan s/p Raja Najeeb Ullah Khan, r/o Charhoi, Ghazenfer Qadeer s/o Muhammad Qadeer Chamb, Arsalan Shah s/o Qudrat Shah, Danayal Khan s/O Ashfaq Khan of Shah Faizsal Colony Karachi, Fawad Akram s/o Muhammad Akam of Mandi Baha ud din, Muhammad Khalil s/o Muhammad Ishak Jatt of Sialkot and Qaiser Khan s/o Khaidr Muhammad Chachar r/o Gyotki (Sind).
Police have Recovered the looted money of Rs. 18.10 lakh beside the bank guard-owned 12 bore pump action rifle from the custody of the arrested bandits, the SSP said adding the police also succeeded in recovering two cars No. (MR-AH-629 and LEH-9260) besides two unregistered 125 Honda motorbikes, an unlicensed Kalashnikov and five pistols, from the custody of the arrested accused, the SSP said.
Raja Irfan Saleem further told that while narrating his life story the arrested ring leader of the band Muhammad Farooq s/o Muhammad Shaffi Jatt, r/o Khairowal (Chamb) told the police in preliminary instigations that he had served in Suahdri Arabi for over 10 years in the past when he was thrown into the prison into a road accident case. ‘’During his stay in the prison, Farooq says that in the Saudi prison he met four of the fellow country men, identified as already-imprisoned bandits including Fawaad, Khalil, Danayal and Qaiser who were passing the sentence in various shops burglary cases”, he said and added that all the five persons holding Pakistani nationality were later deported from the Saudi Arab to Pakistan.
Later on the accused got together in Kotli and planned the dacoity into the HBL Ratta Dadayal branch by chasing the site thoroughly. On the day of offense, the accused reached the site by two cars and two motorbikes. Three of the bandits including Fawad, Danayal, Qaiser Khalid and Arsalan Shah drove to the site of the incident – while rest of the accused carried out their rackey until they competed the offense and made their escape good from the scene, said that district police chief.
Besides the technical branch of the police, separate special police teams comprising Additional P Mirpur Raja Azher Iqbal, DSP Dadayal Khawaja Abdul Qayyum, SHO Dadyal Umaar Dar, SHO Mirpur city Raja Zohaib Tahir, SHO Thothal Adnan Sabir and Sub Inspector Dadayal PS Ishaq Ali performed in excellent manner to successfully reach to the targets nabbing all the above bandits wanted into the bank dacoity case, SSP Irfan Saleem told media.
Further investigations are in progress, he added.