Islamabad police have arrested six suspects and recovered between 70 to 80 percent of the antiques and heirlooms stolen from the residence of a member of Bahawalpur’s former ruling family.
According to reports, the stolen property, valued by police at about Rs2 crore, belonged to Prince Bahawal Abbas Khan Abbasi, son of Nawab Salahuddin Abbasi, and was taken from his home in the federal capital’s F-8/3 neighbourhood.
Islamabad police said investigators from Margalla police station used surveillance footage from the city’s Safe City system, technology and information from human sources to trace those allegedly involved in the theft.
“The scope of the investigation has been expanded to recover further stolen property and arrest the remaining suspects,” police said in a statement quoting Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations Qazi Ali Raza.
While police did not disclose the identities of the suspects or provide details of the items recovered, the missing collection reportedly included a silver throne chair, gold plates, objects bearing the Bahawalpur state crest, antique muskets and swords among other historical items.
The arrests came a day after police confirmed that a domestic worker had been detained in connection with the theft.
Muhammad Imran, in-charge of Margalla police station, told private media on Sunday that the suspect had been arrested and interrogated over the disappearance of antiques and heirlooms worth about Rs2 crores.
The family descends from the former rulers of Bahawalpur, a princely state that acceded to Pakistan in 1947.
