PARCO oil theft: Another tunnel caught in Karachi
- By Nazir Shah -
- Jun 12, 2023
KARACHI: Another tunnel for stealing oil from a Pak-Arab Refinery Company (PARCO) supply line was unearthed in Wali Town area of Steel Town, Karachi, ARY News reported on Monday.
The investigations into the oil theft from the PARCO pipeline was underway when another incident of oil theft was reported in the vicinity of Steel Town.
On the complaint of PARCO Assistant Security Officer Rafiq, a case has been registered in Steel Town police station against unknown accused for attempt to steal oil.
Earlier this to this, Sindh Police prepared a comprehensive report revealing the involvement of seven Pak-Arab Refinery Company (PARCO) employees in oil theft from Bin Qasim pipeline.
According to the details, the inquiry officer submitted a comprehensive report to the relevant authorities revealing that seven PARCO employees identified as Javed Azim, Shafiq Larak, Amir Khan, Jamil Ahmed, Ali Tariq, Amir Awan and Waqas were involved in the theft of millions of rupees worth of oil.
In the report, the inquiry officer recommended to immediate suspend of all seven employees involved in the oil theft and suggest a thorough audit of PARCO.
During the course of the investigation, statements from 13 individuals, including the Station House Officer (SHO) and other officials, have been recorded.
Furthermore, a recommendation has been put forth to change the staff of Bin Qasim Sub Division including the Intelligence officer SIP Abdul Qadir Khaskheili, duty officer Sl Shakir Nawab, Mobile Officer ASI Muhammad Shafiq and others due to their unprofessional attitude towards their jobs, meanwhile, no involvement of SHO was observed.
In January, a Karachi man was caught and sent behind bars for ‘stealing’ oil from a main supply line of PARCO in Bin Qasim.
According to police, a man named Ashraf was arrested in injured condition after a shootout with the cops when he was stealing oil from Parco’s line in Bin Qasim’s Wali Town.
The police said the arrested is a mastermind of a gang involved in stealing oil from the company’s oil supply line several times.
Weapons have been also recovered from the custody of arrested Ashraf.
In May, Police arrested three accused who were attempting to hide the bodies of two men who died while stealing oil from a Pak-Arab Refinery Company (PARCO) supply line and registered a case under charges of murder, destroying evidence, and other relevant sections at the Ban Qasim police station.
As per the FIR, two suspects tried to flee upon seeing the police van, while the police officials chased them down at Gulshan Hadeed and two dead bodies were recovered from the back seat of the cars During the car search.
The three arrested suspects who were present in the car, identified as Ameen, Gul Bahar, and Zubair. The suspects revealed that they had made a pipe in an empty warehouse at Port Qasim, where they attached clips to the PARCO’s pipeline for oil theft.
According to the statement of the suspects, their accomplices, identified as Zahid Khan and Abdul Ghani went to the tunnel to check the clip attached to the pipeline of PARCO, and died due to the tunnel collapse.
An investigation revealed that the Bin Qasim police were aware of oil theft from Pak-Arab Refinery Company (PARCO) supply line.
The special branch had issued an information report to Bin Qasim police officials regarding the oil theft from PARCO supply line two months ago but instead of taking action, the Bin Qasim Police hid the report.
The IO further revealed that the report contained complete details of the suspects Zahid and his associates – who died while stealing oil from an oil supply line last week.