Daily Times

LAHORE: Police have arrested four suspects and their hired female accomplice who were allegedly involved in killing five people earlier this month for resisting a robbery at a Millat Park paan shop.

In a press conference on Wednesday, Capital City Police Officer Amin Wains and Dig Operations Ashraf Haider disclosed that the girl had been hired by the three suspects to dodge police at pickets on roads and patrolling squads and supply them weapons for committing crime.

Three armed men had shot dead a paan shop owner, his son and three customers for resisting a robbery near Pakki Thatti. The suspects escaped leaving the victims injured on the spot, four of whom died in hospital the same day. The fifth victim, an unidentified customer, died a day after the incident. Millat Park police had lodged a case against the unidentified assailants.

The police officials said the three arrested suspects – Basu, Jehangir and Zahid – were residents of Hafizabad and all of them had criminal record. They were involved in dozens of robbery and dacoity cases in various districts of the province, they added.

Explaining their modus operandi, the officers said the suspects would first shoot at their victims rendering them unable to resist. This was what they did in the Millat Park case also.

About the girl, they said that according to preliminary investigations, she had been an active accomplice of the three suspects in previous street crimes the gang committed.

They said owing to the recent surge in criminal activities across the city, police had expedited their efforts to bring the culprits to justice. They assured that the remaining cases would also be solved soon.

Talking to Daily Times, Millat Park Station House Officer Asad Qureshi said the case was not an easy one to solve, as only one CCTV camera was available in the area. “We had to go through several videos to identify the culprits,” he added.

According to figures, 44 murders were reported in Lahore from October 1 till November 22 (50 days), while 423 cases of street crimes were reported with the police. Over 650 motorcycles were either snatched or stolen in the same period.