THE police have confirmed the use of sophisticated weapons in a raid, which occurred at Access Bank, Mbagala Branch, in Dar es Salaam, which left eight people, including one policeman dead on Friday afternoon.
They have also arrested four 'fake'
policemen found possessing police uniforms with specified ranks and
radios, which enable them to interfere with police communication.
Dar es Salaam Special Zone Police
Commander Simon Sirro told reporters yesterday that such robberies have
recently occurred in various parts of the city, including the latest one
at Access Bank.
“In the recent incident, the bandits had
possessed an SMG gun and three grenades used to carry out the robbery,”
said Commander Sirro. He pointed out that 12 bandits had arrived at the
bank on six motorcycles at around 2.30pm on Friday.
They went straight to the security
guards’ room where they found H7739 PC Harid whom they shot on the head,
killing him instantly. Mr Sirro pointed out that the robbers also shot
PC Shaaban on the legs, collected all the weapons and headed inside the
bank where they attacked a private security guard and two civilians.
Five people were injured during the
attack. He added that after such killings, they went straight to the
room containing a big safe and tried to break it but failed. They rushed
to the teller counters where they took about 30m/- and left on their
motorcycles with the two SMG guns they had grabbed from the sentries.
“Word on the bank raid spread fast; we
deployed our men with dogs and horses quickly thereby leading us to
deploy defence forces along with dogs and horses to Mkuranga area,” he
said.
On arrival at Chui, Mkuranga, the police
went straight into action; managing to gun down three armed suspected
bandits and confiscated three Russia-made grenades and SGM guns, two of
which were snatched from the bank’s guards.
“It is evident that the robbers had
strategically planned their raid. It can be revealed by RGD 1 grenades,
which they intended to use in protecting themselves if they were to be
attacked,” added Commander Sirro.
Nine suspects managed to escape leaving
behind all the six motorcycles with registration numbers MC 560 AED, MC
207 BAN, MC 784 BDJ, MC 248 AXE, MC 653 BDQ and MC 853 BDR.
Mr Sirro vowed to bring to an end all
criminal syndicates in the country, saying the police would arrest all
those who are cooperating with or harbouring bandits.
Commenting on the robbery incident, Home
Affairs Minister Charles Kitwanga said he had contacted the Minister
for Defence and National Service, Dr Hussein Mwinyi, to join in the
operation to hunt the bandits.
Moreover, the minister stressed that
they are looking forward to carrying out a special operation in all
forest reserves in Coast Region around, beginning with Bagamoyo up to
Kisarawe where the bandits are suspected to have gone into hiding.
The ministry intends to destroy all
hiding places used by bandits and urged all those with any information
that might help lead to the arrest of the bandits to come forward and
assist in the operation.
“We will conduct a special operation and
we will conduct it quickly. We call upon the people, including
‘bodaboda’ riders, who are believed to have much information on some
criminal activities in our society to contact the police,” Mr Kitwanga
said.
He directed motorcyclists to cooperate
with police officers when they are stopped for inspection as ‘bodaboda’
are mostly used in many armed and bank robberies.
“The checks should not be taken as
harassment but as a measure to ensure their own safety and that of
others,’’ the minister appealed. In another development, police in Dar
es Salaam are holding four people who have been masquerading as police
officers.
They are being interrogated to tell
where they get police uniforms, radios and other official police
equipment. Acting on information provided by volunteers, the police were
able to nab the conmen in police uniforms who have been harassing the
people for personal gain.
“After thorough interrogation, the suspects admitted to be involved in some of armed robbery incidents.
We are continuing with the interrogation
to help us carry out more arrests as we believe there are others out
there,’’ Mr Sirro pointed out.
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