“Bahawalpur Police has arrested two gang members involved in different crimes in the Punjab,” DPO Sohail Habib Tajik said on Thursday.
Speaking at a press conference, Tajik said Faryad and Imtiaz rented cars using fake identity cards and later stole them after drugging the driver.
The DPO said a team comprising DSP Riaz Hussain Bukhari, Inspector Irfan Akbar, Inspector Malik Rasheed, Sub-Inspector Shahid Mehmood Bajwa and Sub-Inspector Muhammad Lateef had arrested the men.
He said the gang members had confessed to snatching Rs520,000 from Sutlej Toll Plaza in 2009. Tajik said they also confessed to killing a bank manager, Saleem Akhtar, in a robbery.
The DPO said police had seized two pickup vans, Rs100,000 in cash, two pistols, six cell phones, a motorcycle, 11 fake registration books, five number plates and sedatives from the men.
Tajik said police had also busted another criminal involved in corrupting IMEI numbers of mobile phones to avoid being traced.
He said Naeemul Hassan had ordered 60 to 70 cell phones from Shakeel, a resident of Karachi. The phones, the DPO said, were used in terrorist attacks and other crimes. Police said a case had been registered against Hassan.
As many as 60 cell phones had been recovered from him, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2013.