NEW YORK: A private security company guard deputed at a bank on Pakistan’s “Wall Street” II Chundrigarh Road, on Sunday carried out the biggest bank robbery in the country’s history, escaping with foreign currency worth Rs 520 million.

The guard is believed to have been assisted by five accomplices.

Police said the security guard, Shahid, was the mastermind behind the bank robbery. After arriving at the Allied Bank branch early morning, Shahid called his five accomplices, tied up the other two guards — Imran and Zamir – and made off with the money.

Shahid holds an NIC from Faisalabad, according to The News.

Police said the other two bank guards were also involved in the robbery. Police have arrested Imran and Zamir and were raiding various locations across the city to nab the robbers.

“They took at least two hours to complete the heist and used gas cutters and other equipment to break open safety vaults,” said CID DSP Israr Awan to Daily Times. Of the nine vaults in the bank, the robbers broke into the one that “contained euros, dollars and pounds”, the DSP said. They also tried to break open another vault, but later fled with the foreign currency.

The heist took place around 10:30-11:00 am. As it was a holiday, no one came to know about the robbery until the two guards, who were tied up inside the bank, managed to free themselves and reported the robbery to the Mithadar police station at around 1:00 pm.

Meanwhile, a private TV channel reported that Karachi police had recovered Rs 5.5 million from a house identified by Imran, the guard allegedly tied up by the robbers before the heist.

A bag containing 40,000 British pounds was recovered from a police officer’s house. The family members of the police official had left the bag home which contained foreign currency, reported Geo News as well as DawnNews. The police officer is also under suspicion of involvement in the biggest robbery in the history of the country.

Around 80,000 security guards belonging to private security companies provide security cover to banking, financial and other major institutions but none are registered or have been cleared by the police, a report says. The security companies do their own due diligence, the report adds.   (MAMOSA)