Special team constituted to nab culprits

RAWALPINDI: City Police Officer (CPO) Azhar HameedKhokar on Sunday constituted a six-member team to arrest the persons accused of having stolen jewellery worth Rs 120 from Sarafa bazar of the city.

The team comprising Superintendent Police (SP), Rawal Town, MalikMatloob Awan, Superintendent Investigation Israr Abbasi, SP CIA, DSP,SHO Waris Khan, SHO Banni and SHO Saddar Baroni will investigate the case.

According to details this was a biggest burglary in the Sarafa Bazaar of the city. cash, diamonds and jewellery worth about Rs120 million were taken away from a goldsmith`s workshop at Kucha Ganga Ram on Friday night.

The Waris Khan police said that Anwar Ahmed alias Dada Anwar, the owner of the workshop, came to his workplace on Saturday morning and found a hole in the rooftop and the wall. Inside, he found a large quantity of gold, diamonds and jewellery missing along with the cash, said the police.

As the news spread to the new Sarafa Bazaar, jewellers gathered outside the goldsmith`s workshop and chanted slogans against the police for its failure to provide them security.

Superintendent of Police Rawal Town Malik Matloob Ahmed and WarisKhan Police Station House Officer Raja Rasheed along with a heavy contingent of police reached the scene and tried to pacify the protesters but in vain. The police called forensic experts who collected evidence from the crime scene.

Jewellers have described it as the biggest theft in the market.

The office-bearers of Markazi Union of Sarafa Bazaar, senior vice-president Sheikh Ishaq Hamid, general secretary Mohammad Fayyaz Qureshi and vice-president Chaudhry Fayyaz condmned the robbery and threatened to go on an indefinite strike if the robbers were not arrested by the police.

They urged the government to provide the jewellers with full security. They said the trade unions would devise their own future strategy at a meeting to be held soon.

Meanwhile, the police have arrested several suspects in connection with the incident.