PESHAWAR: At least four suspected members of an alleged interprovincial dacoit-gang wanted by police in three provinces and Islamabad were killed in a police encounter in Peshawar’s Yakatoot area, while two others managed to escape.
According to the CCPO Peshawar Dr Mian Saeed the suspects killed in the encounter were allegedly associated with the Waqar alias Major gang, which police said had been involved in organised crime for nearly 15 years.
According to police, the gang operated across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh and Islamabad and its members were allegedly involved in several serious criminal cases and wanted by law-enforcement agencies in different areas.
Police identified the alleged gang leader as Waqar alias Major, a resident of Peshawar, Sahil alias Saud, a resident of Warsak Road; Ijaz alias Pehlwan, a resident of Peshawar; Hafeez alias Charra, a resident of Dara Adam Khel/Nowshera; Gran Wali, a resident of Jalalabad, Afghanistan; and Ali alias Sheena, also from Afghanistan.
CCPO Mian Saeed said members of the gang had been nominated and arrested in more than a dozen cases over the years and had also been released on bail in various cases. According to police officials, the suspects used uniforms and equipment resembling security forces, wireless communication devices, Wi-Fi jammers, and modern weapons. Posing as intelligence or security personnel, they entered houses on pretext of conducting search operations before looting cash, gold, and valuables.
Police records and available information have linked the gang to several major alleged robberies and other crimes in different parts of the country. These cases allegedly include a robbery involving around Rs8 million in Hayatabad, a robbery worth approximately Rs20 million in Yakatoot, Peshawar, and another incident in Chamkani.
Police have also linked the gang to an alleged fraud case involving around Rs60 million from the son of a senior government official. The gang has also allegedly been linked to robberies involving around Rs50 million in Dir, Rs80 million in Swat, Rs80 million in DHA Karachi, and approximately Rs100 million in Raja Bazaar, Rawalpindi, police said.
Police further claimed that gang members were allegedly involved in a vehicle-snatching incident in Dargai, Malakand, an alleged robbery at the residence of MPA Khalid Sargana in Jhang, a reported robbery at the house of a foreign national in Faisalabad, and an alleged robbery at the residence of a provincial assembly member in Sindh.
According to police, around 167 tolas of gold were reportedly stolen in the Sindh incident.Police records also reportedly show the alleged involvement of gang members in several robbery and street-crime incidents in Lahore.
CCPO Mian Saeed said the gang had also been accused of vehicle snatching and theft, kidnapping for ransom, armed robberies, drug trafficking and links with other criminal groups. Police officials described the Waqar alias Major gang as an organised interprovincial criminal network whose activities had reportedly been recorded from Peshawar to Malakand, Dir, Swat, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Punjab and Karachi.
He said that police were compiling further details of cases registered against the gang in different provinces and districts, as well as records of previous arrests, court proceedings and its alleged links to other criminal activities. Following the killing of four suspects during the police encounter in Yakatoot, police operations are continuing to apprehend the two suspects who escaped.
Read also: Drone Attack on Police Station Thwarted
