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Big gang of international

criminals busted: 14 arrested

RAWALPINDI: The city police has busted an international gang of criminals, arresting 14 persons and recovering currency notes and valuables worth millions of rupees.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Rawalpindi Range, Fareed Nawaz, said this while addressing a press conference here on Wednesday.

He said the gang was carrying out its activities all over the country as well as abroad and it was involved in 161 cases of dacoity and looting, of which 100 were registered in Lahore, 31 in Rawalpindi, 15 in Islamabad, 10 in Sheikhupura and 5 in Peshawar.

Beside local and foreign currency worth rupees 1.7 million, nine vehicles, five mobile phones, four bungalows, seven plots of land a big haul of electronics equipments including TVs, VCRs, refrigerators, washing machines, cassettes recorders and carpets having total value of over Rs 50 million were also recovered from the gang members. One of the gang members was also running a 'guest house', 'Marvi' at Islamabad, he added.

Fareed said that the fate of the property would be determined through legal course of action.

He said that police managed to arrest 14 culprits including Khuda Karam, Kazim Ali, Sheikh Waziruddin, Mohammad Aslam Elahi, Abdul Wahid, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Suleman, Mohammad Javed, Amjad Hussain, Mohammad Niaz, Abdul Sattar, Yousaf Khan, Fareed and Masood Zafar, while efforts were afoot to apprehend eight of the remaining culprits, including Jehangir, Haider Hussain, Younas, Azad, Rais Ali, Mahboob Khan, Ghareeb Hussain and Ayub.

Three of the culprits were Iranian and some of them were living in Karachi while the rest of them belong to Islamabad. They used new vehicles in their illegal activities to impress the innocent victims.

He said that the bunch of criminals had been active during the past two years and it was involved in looting of overseas Pakistanis, on their return, at airports.

He said that the members of the gang pretended to be officers of official security agencies including Customs, CIA, ASF and Intelligence Bureau. They also looted some foreigners.

The DIG said that the gang was posing a big challenge to the security agencies and the police. Rawalpindi police, under the leadership of SSP Syed Kaleem Imam, did a remarkable task in breaking the net of the organised criminals. SP City Zahid Rasool supervised the police operation while DSP City Choudhry Shafqat Ahmed played a pivotal role and with the help fo SHO of Ganj Mandi and Wari Khan traced the gang activities.

The culprits used to chase overseas Pakistani when they retuned home. Some members of the gang were also involved in criminal activities in Singapore, Malaysia, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Indonesia, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Turkey, Bulgaria, Bhutan and South Africa.

The DIG said that investigations are under way and some more revelations are expected.ÑAPP