Image source: Getty Images
The university students had made such a plan for the bank robbery on the basis of which they thought that they would not be caught. But the police traced them after about one and a half years.
This story is about a bank robbery that took place last year in Othal area of Lasbela district of Balochistan province of Pakistan.
According to the police, armed people had fled after looting 20 crore 20 lakh Pakistani rupees. This was no ordinary robbery. The robbers had made a complete plan to avoid arrest.
They had entered the bank wearing the uniform of security forces on the pretext of checking some transaction.
According to Lasbela SSP Najibullah Pandarani, during the investigation, an important clue was found from the bank account of the main accused.
He said, "Before the robbery, there were transactions worth thousands of rupees in his account, but after the incident this amount reached crores of rupees."
An officer associated with the investigation of the case told BBC Urdu on the condition of anonymity that one of the accused had previously worked in a bank. Because of this he knew where the cash was kept in the bank and how to access the maximum amount.
After the incident, Othal police station in-charge Yar Mohammad chased the accused. However, he was seriously injured in the firing and lost the sight of one eye.
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According to police officials, "The accused not only made the entire plan, but also later burnt the vehicle used in the crime, so that all the evidence could be completely destroyed."
During a press conference in Othal yesterday, SSP of Lasbela said that three accused have been arrested, while action is underway to arrest the rest.
About one and a half year old incident
Image source: Umar Lasi
This bank robbery took place in Othal on 28 February 2025.
According to the FIR registered on the complaint of bank manager Falak Sher, six armed people wearing the uniform of security forces entered the main door of the bank in a car.
According to the complaint, "Operations Manager Jahangir told on phone that as soon as he reached the bank, the accused asked where the manager was as they had come to investigate a transaction."
According to the bank manager, "When he reached the spot, he saw that when they protested, the accused had injured the policemen Nawaz Ali and Mohammad Dawood by hitting them with the butt of the rifle. They also snatched a G3 rifle from the policemen."
Falak Sher said in his complaint, "The operations manager told that the accused had taken all the bank employees, including him, hostage."
According to the FIR, the accused filled Rs 20 crore 20 lakh kept in the bank in six sacks and kept them in the trunk of the car. After this, the bank employees locked themselves in the cash vault and ran away.
encounter with police
At that time, Yaar Mohammad was posted as police station in-charge in Othal.
Talking to BBC, he told that between 9 and 9.30 in the morning, information was received that a robbery had taken place in National Bank, Othal. When he reached the bank with the police team, the accused had left from there.
Initial information revealed that the accused had gone towards RCD Highway in an old model car.
According to Yar Mohammad, it was later revealed that the vehicle had gone towards Baloch Goth.
He told that the vehicle was chased, "When we reached near them, the accused started firing. I was hit by two bullets. One in the leg and the other near the eye."
According to Yar Mohammad, after he was injured, the accused fled towards the mountains and set their car on fire.
Why did the accused set the car on fire?
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An officer associated with the investigation team, while not disclosing his name, said that the accused knew that the vehicle could help the police reach them.
According to the officer, fingerprints and other forensic evidence could be found from the vehicle. Apart from this, the accused could not even take that vehicle to the hilly area.
"If you left the car behind, the police would have taken it into custody. So they burnt it, so that all the evidence, including fingerprints, could be destroyed."
The officer said that two weapons used in the crime were also burnt along with the vehicle.
According to him, "The accused had made such a plan from the very beginning, the purpose of which was to make the incident appear different from a normal robbery and to mislead the police."
According to SSP Najibullah Pandarani, "The five people involved in the robbery were current and former students of Lasbela University of Marine Sciences."
He said that the main accused, who has now been arrested, was studying in the university.
According to the police, some of the remaining accused are still studying in the university, while some have completed their studies. The age of the accused is between 25 to 26 years.
Police claim that 'the main accused is the mastermind of this incident. He planned with his associates and carried out the crime.
According to the investigating officer, one of the accused involved in the incident had earlier worked in a bank in Turbat.
He told that because of this he had knowledge about the functioning of the bank and the places of keeping the cash.
On the basis of this information, the accused planned in advance and managed to access the huge amount kept inside the bank.
How the secret was revealed
According to the investigating officer, the accused wanted to reach inside the bank without any opposition. For this he decided to use the uniforms of the security forces and ordered it online.
Instead of getting the uniforms stitched by purchasing cloth, the accused had ordered the uniforms online from a company.
Police say that these uniforms were ordered in December 2024, while the robbery took place in February 2025.
According to SSP Pandarani, the investigation of this incident was a big challenge for the police.
He told that in the beginning of the investigation information was collected from informers and later modern technical methods were used.
According to him, the bank account of the main accused played an important role in the investigation. Before the incident, transactions of small amounts used to take place in the account, but later this amount reached crores of rupees.
According to the SSP, transactions worth Rs 17 crore were detected in his account during the last one and a half year.
Suddenly such a huge transaction from an account made the police suspicious and it was investigated. After this the main accused was arrested. On his information, two other accused were also arrested.
Forensic analysis of mobile phones of other accused has also been done. These devices have been sent to Punjab Forensic Lab for further investigation.
According to the SSP, a transaction of around Rs 3.25 crore of the robbery amount was detected in the account of a local businessman. The businessman has accepted this and his statement has been recorded before the magistrate.
The officer involved in the investigation of the case says that some part of the looted money was also invested in business activities.
With this amount, vehicles and other things worth more than Rs 4 crore were purchased. Some of these have been recovered, while action is underway to recover the remaining money and properties.
According to SSP Najibullah Pandarani, the arrested accused were taken into police custody for 14 days. The accused were sent to jail in judicial custody.
Due to lack of contact with the arrested accused, their version of the allegations leveled against them could not be obtained.
Published by Collective Newsroom for the BBC.
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