SMG-wielding man kills restaurant worker, injures dozen others in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: An SMG wielding man roamed around the capital on Monday and Tuesday, murdering a restaurant worker, injuring a dozen people, including security guards, and looting millions of rupees in five incidents.
All the five robberies were committed in front of banks by attacking security guards of cash vans.
Out of the five incidents, the robber looted cash bags and murdered a man and injured six people in two strikes on Tuesday.
The police said that in the first incident on Tuesday, a motorcycle rider armed with an SMA and wearing a helmet was waiting at G-9/4, near the National Bank branch.
When one of the security guards reached near the doorstep of the bank carrying a bag full of cash, the gunman fired at him. The guard fell down and the gunman picked the cash bag and escaped.
However, another security guard retaliated and fired at the gunman, but missed the target, the police said, adding the gunman again opened fire, injuring two more security guards and three employees of a nearby restaurant. Some vehicles were also damaged.
The gunman then escaped from the spot along with the cash, they said, adding that later the injured were shifted to hospital where one of them, identified as Mir Haider, 40, an employee of the restaurant was pronounced dead.
The other injured were identified as Nazirullah, 45, and Nadim, 50, also employees of the restaurant, and Nazim Shah, 54, Ziaullah, 59, and Salim Javaid, 53, security guards.
In another similar incident, a lone man armed with SMG struck at G-14/4 when a security guard was taking cash bags to a van from the bank.
The gunman started firing and as a result the security guard sustained a bullet injury and fell on the road. The guards inside the bank locked the door from inside.
Later, the gunman looted the cash and escaped without any resistance, the police said. The injured guard, identified as Fazal Hassan, was shifted to hospital.
The police said that the preliminary investigation suggested that the lone gunman was involved in the two robberies. Besides, he was the same person who robbed bank cash vans at three places in the capital on Monday.
Over the two Monday incidents, cases were registered at Industrial Area and Tarnol police stations.
According to the FIR registered at Industrial Area police station, security guards of a company along with Rs5.8million reached HBL at I-9/3 in a cash van. A gunman appeared there and fired from an SMG when the security guards reached the bank’s gate with the cash bags.
As a result, one of the guards (Mohammad Rafiq) sustained a bullet injury while the other (Mohammad Hussain) entered the bank along with the cash bags. Mohammad Hussain along with a bank guard retaliated and as a result the gunman escaped.
The FIR registered at Tarnol over the second attempt stated that guards of a security company collected cash from Chungi No 26 and reached the Allied Bank branch at G-15. A gunman started firing at the cash van when the guards were waiting for the bank’s security guards.
The guards retailed from the cash van while the driver sped away the vehicle, it said. During the firing, company’s guards Mohammad Ramzan, Mohammad Nawaz, Noman Arshad and Mudaser Raza, watchman of the bank, and a passerby Rizwan were injured.
Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2024