BARA - Masked gunmen looted Rs4.8 million from a bank in Bara tehsil of Khyber tribal district on Wednesday while the local people criticised the security situation. The incident is the second in the last two months at the same bank.

 branch which had been once looted in January this year.

An FIR of the robbery states that on Wednesday four armed men riding a motorbike reached the branch of the Allied Bank Limited (ABL) at around 12:15pm, overpowered the security guards, and went straight to the cash counter. One gunman asked the cashier to hand over the money while other stood outside. 

After the incident, the police reached the bank. The cops barricaded all exit points of Bara bazaar and launched a search operation but no arrest could be made till filing of this report.

The police also received CCTV footage from the bank for investigation purpose.

It may be mentioned here, the same bank had been looted on January 21, 2021 when the robbers had decamped with Rs6.5 million.

Local tribal elders have criticised the local police and administration and said that since merger of the FATA into KP and extension of the police system in the merged districts, the incidents of robberies and other crimes had increased in the region. 

A local tribesman Abdullah Afridi told journalists that before the FATA-KP merger, such bank robberies were rare. “However, the two-time robbery at the same bank in Bara is baffling. Why they did not improve security when it had already been robbed once while the police have also failed to provide security,” he added.