Man from Dir held, stolen items worth millions recovered

CHITRAL: Lower Chitral police on Saturday said they have arrested a man from Dir district allegedly involved in the recent theft/burglary cases in Chitral.

District Police Officer (DPO) Iftikhar Shah said that there had been complaints about theft of household items, especially gold ornaments and other valuables, in Chitral and Drosh towns within the past one and a half months.

He said that monitoring of suspects by a special team formed to investigate the cases showed a man checking into Falcon Hotel in the Chitral town at odd hours. Questioning of the suspect by the police team revealed that the suspect identified as Jihad Khan from Rabat in Dir had been staying in the hotel for many weeks.

A search of the suspect led to the recovery of different items that had been reportedly stolen from houses in Chitral town and Drosh in the absence of the inmates.

The suspects possessed identify cards in different names and addresses of five districts and used them at different places. However, he had booked a room in the Falcon Hotel with his original CNIC.

The police chief said that stolen goods had been recovered from the suspect that were worth millions of rupees. These included gold ornaments, laptops, mobile phones, wrist watches, motorcycles as well as costly cloths, electric and electronic equipment.

In reply to a question, the police officer said that the suspect was being probed and so far it seems he had committed the crime alone. However, about six days ago, the police in a statement had said they had succeeded in tracing and nabbing members of a gang behind a number of burglary and theft cases.

To another query, he said the recovered goods would he returned to the owners after fulfilling legal formalities.