Punjab police smashes an inter-district gang

Lahore: The Punjab police have smashed an inter-district gang of auto-lifters by arresting its nine members including the dealers and the thieves. The police also recovered 20 stolen cars including luxury vehicles worth millions of rupees from their possession.
According to details, taking strict notice of sudden rise in the incidents of auto-lifting in Bahawalpur district, DPO Sohail Habib Tajik constituted a special police team headed by SDPO Sadar Bahawalpur Syed Ali Raza to nab the criminals. The police team implemented a strategy and managed to trace the gang.
During preliminary investigations, the accused confessed to the several incidents of auto-lifting that they had committed in other districts of the province.

The arrested car-thieves are Hashim alias Hashu, Waqar alias Babar, Akhtar Bhatti, Ghulam Abbas Baloch, Shabbir Maitla and Allah Bukhsh. Car-dealers including Aziz-ur- Rehman, Maqsood Jan, and Arif Pathan are also arrested for deliberately purchasing stolen vehicles from the thieves.

The arrested thieves used to take away cars from Bahawalpur, Multan, Khanewal, Muzaffargarh and Lahore districts. They used to sell the stolen cars to Ashraf Pathan, Master Samar Gull, and Badshah Khan in Mardan, Swabi and Lakki Marwat areas.

One Toyota-Parado, two Honda City, one Honda Civic, two 2OD Corolla, one XLI, three XE Corolla, two Corolla-86, one Suzuki Margalla and eight Suzuki Mehran cars are recovered from the criminals.
Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab Khan Baig has lauded the Bahawalpur police over good performance. The IGP Punjab has also directed the DPOs of other districts to implement a similar strategy to control auto-lifting in their respective districts.